Ok, so not actually Bambi but some of his relatives seem to be in the headlines when it comes to athletes and HGH. It turns out that the New Zealand Red Velvet Deer has some very sought after antlers. They possess a very special coating that covers their antlers. This substance is harvested from the deer when their antlers are cut, which causes no pain to the deer. After the antlers are cut they are then frozen and then crushed to form pills or a simple oral spray that can sell for $68.
So why all this trouble for some deer antlers? It turns out that they contain IGF-1 (insulin growth factor 1) which is one of the proteins that is increased in HGH, which is considered performance enhancing. So one of mother nature's tricks, is that these antlers are only detectable through blood test which is not currently in place in the NFL & MLB. Bengals safety Roy Williams admits he used the spray 2-3 times a day and it never showed up on the NFL's urine test. Some of the benefits he received were faster recovery time and increased muscle growth. There have been other NFL players and coaches linked to these famous antlers such as Ray Lewis & new Raiders coach Hue Jackson, but who knows what Al Davis does out there in Oakland.
What I found interesting about this article is how the media's percpetion of the sport decides if we vilify or idolize an athlete. For instance, it seems that if NFL athletes get caught taking a performance enhacing substance they get a pass in the media because of the sports violent nature. However, if a MLB player gets caught taking the same substance they have cheated the game and have ruined all the history and lore of America's past-time. If it turns out that Ray Lewis was using this substance as well as many of his other NFL'ers, how are they different than say Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez. I say the only difference is in the media's coverage and portrayal of the story.
Enrique Devine
Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-deerantlers011911
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