Five Reasons Why NFL Fans Don't Care About Steroids

In 2009 survey , nine percent of 2552 retired players admitted to using steroids with offensive and defensive linemen showing the most use.    Some of those players are the likes of Deion Sanders, Terry Bradshaw, Rodney Harrison.  Among current players, the list includes names like Brian Cushing, Shawne Merriman, Luis Castillo, Julius Peppers, Kevin and Pat Williams, Shaun Rogers, Shawn Springs, and on and on.

So why is it that a news story involving an NFL player using steroids roll along the ticker as if it were any other story of the day?   In other sports, violations like this would hurt the credibility and popularity of the sport and dominate the headlines for weeks.    Yet, in the NFL life goes on like business as usual.    I outline five reasons why NFL fans don’t give a flip about steroid use.  

It's a Gladiator Sport

If you enter ‘gladiator’ in Wikipedia, you will find the following description.   “an armed combatant who entertained audiences with violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals.”     Sound familiar?    This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons the NFL is king in the ratings game.    Fans love the violence, rivalries, and social status involved with the game.    If fans were ever going to turn the other cheek for a sport, it’s this one.    The average person can pick up a baseball bat, basketball, or bicycle and be ok.   But the average joe would likely lose his life if he stepped out onto an NFL field.  

Size Matters

Steroids might help baseball players recover from injuries and surgeries and people like Lance Armstrong might be able to enhance their endurance, but in the NFL size and strength are vital components to overpowering the other team.     Offensive and defensive linemen are playing at a size that will likely shorten their life and the time to have a career and provide for the family is now.   To achieve and maintain the necessary size to play in the NFL, many players use all the supplemental help they can get.

Irrelevant Records

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons baseball fans get so upset about steroid use is the fact that it jeopardizes cherished, long-held records.     In the NFL, some statistics hold weight, but for the most part fans don’t sit around the water cooler debating them on a daily basis.     The only statistics that matters to most fans are wins, losses and championships.    Thousands of other NFL fans are too busy making spreadsheets in order to win their fantasy games.   They spend much less time worrying about how they are winning.

Hall of Fame

The NFL’s policy on Hall of Fame consideration is primarily concentrated on what players do on the field.   In baseball, voters are supposed to take off the field matters into the equation as well.    This puts voters in the uncomfortable arena of playing judge and jury.    Many Hall of Fame NFL players don’t carry the black eye that a steroid violation would give them if they played in a different sport.     The list of transgressions is long and using a performance enhancing substance is just another blip on the radar.    All that is important is how they performed on the football field.

NFL means Not For Long

The NFL is different than other major sports on very important levels.    Contracts are not guaranteed and the average length of a career is four years.    As a fan, it’s hard to empathize with athletes who can easily play late into their 30’s like hockey, baseball, and basketball.    Those players never have to worry about tomorrow because whether they can play or not, they will see their money.    Unless your name is Brett Favre, football players get a very limited opportunity to play the game and make some coin.    The pressure to perform and maintain their job is critically important to survive in the league.    Whether they need to surpass or stay ahead of another player, or come back from injury, the temptation and motivation to do this is immaculately high.  

Conclusion

The league recently released some facts about their current testing policy.   According to the NFL, tests are carried out by an independent administrator with minimal notice ahead of time.    Usually specimens are collected immediately unless that player is in a practice or meeting.   However, Ocho Cinco recently tweeted a photograph of a notification regarding steroid testing.   Many people criticize the NFL because notes like these give players time to mask or dilute their urine.   

In a calendar year, over 14000 tests are conducted.   This sounds promising as it appears like the NFL is leading the way in drug testing, but what about HGH?   It is the NFL’s dirty little secret that most players who abuse performance enhancing drugs go this route because there is no way to test for it…yet.    The problem is players have never agreed to blood testing as no viable test can detect HGH with urine samples.   Breakthrough blood tests are going to be available very soon, but they will need to be collectively bargained before they ever see the light of day.  

The only remaining question is, do fans even care?