The league’s busts for PED use (performance-enhancing drugs) are relatively rare, the penalties are laughably light, and the NFL has refused to use independent testers, which ought to tell you something.Īs USA Today put it, “The NFL’s PED policy is not set by an independent party such as USADA. NFL officials also like to pretend they’re serious about catching drug cheats. The league likes the fake grass because - you guessed it - it saves money. This year, the American Journal of Sports Medicine announced the results of a study that reconfirmed what players and coaches already know: there is a higher rate of foot and ankle injuries and that “elite” football players suffered more knee injuries on synthetic turf. The league has made it an art form.įor years NFL officials have talked about player safety and how committed they are to it, so what did they do? They added a 17th game, they continue to allow the Tush Push that results in a 4,000-pound collision/pileup of humanity, and half of the games are still played on plastic grass. The NFL is talking out both sides of its mouth about gambling, but we should be used to this by now.
