Woodson on PEDs: “It's in the NFL and We're Going To Find That Out”

It started with a couple of stories. First, there were the claims that Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis had used a deer antler spray containing a substance banned by the NFL in order to recover from a torn triceps. Then there was the report linking a handful of Major League Baseball players to a Miami anti-aging clinic that allegedly dealt in performance enhancing drugs.

The end product was the discussion of PEDs in sports being pushed to the front page once again last week, in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.

Even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the issue to a degree in his State of the League address last week, saying the NFL hopes to have an HGH testing program in place as early as the 2013 season. If they do, and if Cowboys-great turned ESPN analyst Darren Woodson is correct in his assessment, don't be surprised if more than a handful of NFLers find themselves in hot water.

Speaking on ESPN Radio's "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd this week, Woodson said that he'd have a (very) hard time believing PEDs aren't a part of life in the NFL today--that it's "obvious" that players are using something more than Wheaties.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the testing,” Woodson said, via the Dallas Morning News. “I know it’s in the collective bargaining agreement and they’re going to start testing for doping and a lot more, (but) they have to be more serious. Once they start testing, there’s going to be a reaction."
 
Woodson, a three-time Super Bowl champion safety for the Cowboys, knows firsthand that football at this level is pretty brutal--which leads him to believe that the need to recover from week to week is where PEDs come into play in today's NFL.
 
“My body was banged up Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; Thursday I started to finally start coming around,” Woodson said. “And I was playing at the safety position. Imagine the offensive linemen that have to go through this. Imagine the linebackers who are coming down hill all the time. You cannot tell me that it’s not a part of the NFL. It’s in the NFL and we’re going to find that out. When they start testing we’re really going to figure it out.”
 

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