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TESTIMONY OF PAUL
TAGLIABUE Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: We are, respectively, the Commissioner of the National Football League and the Executive Director of the NFL Players Association, the labor union that represents all NFL players in collective bargaining. We have submitted this joint statement to emphasize that, whatever other issues management and labor may disagree upon, there is complete agreement between us on this: steroids and other performance enhancing substances have no place in our game, or anywhere in sports. For many years, we have been committed to keeping them out of the NFL, and we will continue to work together and with government and private parties to help remove them from American life. In recent weeks, this subject has again received renewed attention. The President’s comments in his State of the Union address, combined with the recent indictments in connection with the BALCO case, have focused a wide audience on the use of performance enhancing substances in sports, and have brought to the forefront what many observers have come to recognize – that this is both an ongoing challenge and one that is likely to be more complex and difficult to address successfully. In the NFL, we have been focused on these issues of performance-enhancing substances since the late 1980s. The League’s then-Commissioner, Pete Rozelle, instituted both educational and disciplinary programs in the late 1980’s to deter the use of performance-enhancing substances by NFL players and to eliminate them from our game. Educational efforts have led both our teams and our players to support strong measures, developed jointly by the League and the Players Association, to eliminate these illicit substances from NFL football – and to send a message to others in football at the intercollegiate, high school and youth levels that the use of performance-enhancing substances is not the way to play or succeed in football. Against this backdrop, we strongly support S.1780, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2003, which you have co-sponsored, Mr. Chairman. This bill would expand the definition of steroids and precursors as controlled substances and increase the penalties associated with distribution of these substances. We understand that a companion bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives, and we will strongly support that bill as well. We are pleased to appear today to offer the Committee a description of the NFL’s Policy and Program on Anabolic Steroids and Related Substances. That program has been in place for more than a decade, and is the most comprehensive in professional sports today. Our results confirm that the program is very effective. It reflects a strong and ongoing commitment on the part of both our organizations, backed by substantial financial investments, top scientific resources, and more than a few tough decisions. The NFL began testing players for steroids in 1987; started suspending violators in 1989; and instituted in 1990 a year-round random testing program, including during the off-season, backed by immediate suspensions for any violation. The program has strong features to deter evasion, including suspension for players testing positive for masking agents or who attempt to dilute their urine to beat the tests. Players who test positive are subject to up to 24 unannounced tests per year, including during the off-season. They remain subject to this frequent, year-round testing for the remainder of their careers. We also recognize the importance of staying current, and have consistently expanded our own list of prohibited substances – in the past three years, nearly 20 additional substances have been added to the banned list. Those included ephedra, which we prohibited three years ago. As the Committee knows, the federal government is now in the process of banning that dangerous supplement. Why has this issue been among the highest priorities of the N.F.L. and its players? First, these substances threaten the fairness and the integrity of the game on the field. To allow the use of steroids and banned stimulants would not only condone cheating, but also compel others to use them to remain competitive. Second, we have a responsibility to protect our players from the demonstrated adverse health effects of steroids and other banned substances. Medical literature is replete with research linking the use of these substances to a wide range of serious health problems. Third, we take seriously our role in educating and leading young people. As President Bush said, the use of performance-enhancing drugs is dangerous and sends the wrong message that there are shortcuts to success and that performance at any price is more important than integrity. The key provisions of our policy are:
The consistent application of these core tenets has resulted in the recognition of the N.F.L.'s policy as the most effective in professional sports. Over the past five seasons, less than 1 percent of our players (a total of 25) have violated our steroid program and been suspended. In short, virtually all of our players get the message and participate in the NFL without using anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing substances. When our steroid testing lab — the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory — informed us last year of the new designer steroid called THG, we immediately added it to our banned substance list and started officially testing for it on a uniform basis on Oct. 6. Since then, we have randomly tested more than 3,000 player urine samples and there have been no THG positives. We spend $10 million a year on our steroid and drug programs, including the funding of research to identify new substances and improve testing. To date, we have invested close to $100 million on this initiative. And we are prepared to do more if necessary. Despite the efforts that we and others in sport have made to eliminate anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs from our athletic competitions, there are those in America and elsewhere who will seek to beat the system by designing and producing illicit substances that inappropriately affect athletic performance while escaping detection. THG is only the latest such substance to become a controversial issue and attract wide attention. Over the years we have worked very hard with specialists and the scientific community to minimize the potential for such evasion, and we believe that our efforts have been successful. With respect to THG specifically, our extensive random tests during the past football season – from early October through the end of our season this January – did not identify any NFL player as using THG, and we have no information suggesting that any significant number of NFL players used THG before this past season. But we will continue our efforts to confirm this belief with reliable test results. As announced earlier this week, we have partnered with the United States Anti-Doping Agency to establish a new research and drug testing laboratory at the University of Utah. This lab will work closely with Utah’s highly respected Center for Human Toxicology, which is renowned for its forensic analytical toxicology expertise. Today new challenges are being presented by the improper use of human growth hormone and the continuing advance of gene therapy and genetic manipulation. Both the government and private sectors must aggressively address these challenges. If not, the secret designers of new illicit substances will slog on, and the future will bring more high-profile grand jury investigations, health risks to young people and dishonor to sports. Mr. Chairman, we in the NFL thank you for your leadership on this issue, and we appreciate the opportunity to testify today. |