Hard sell

Coaches expect bumpy transition to ephedrine ban

HOUSTON -- Herman Edwards knows it's coming. But he and his fellow NFL head coaches concede there is only so much they can do to prevent it.

When the NFL begins year-round drug testing for the banned stimulant known as ephedrine on July 1, coaches around the league will be braced for the kind of eye-opening object lesson that only can be imparted by failure.

"There's a concern and I think every coach knows that," said Edwards, the New York Jets head coach, who is in Houston this week for a pair of NFL-related meetings. "You'll get a few guys testing positive. They'll be a few casualties. There always is. I think once that happens, it'll be the big lesson for everyone. It generally happens that way. It's like wearing a seat belt. You know you should wear it, but until you see casualties, sometimes you don't wear it because you figure it's not going to happen to you.

"And that's what every coach is kind of crossing his fingers on and saying, 'I hope it's not one of my guys.'"

Players testing positive for ephedrine will be subject to a four-game suspension, and enrolled in the league's substance-abuse program, as an offshoot of the anabolic steroid policy. But how many players will have to learn the hard way in regards to the NFL's latest banned substance is a point of pure conjecture.

"Sure as I'm standing here, it's going to happen," said first-year Carolina head coach John Fox on Wednesday. "Like they told us in these meetings this week, it's guaranteed somebody is going to get nabbed. You just hope as a head coach that somebody in your organization didn't say it was OK to use some product with [ephedrine] in it. That's one of the things that's got me nervous being a head coach, as well as the risk of losing a player and especially a critical one.

"Any time they start something new, there's a certain amount of trial and error. You just hope you're not one of the teams who has a player who tests positive, and you do everything in your power to make sure you're not."

Edwards, Fox and other head coaches are grappling with the ephedrine testing issue this offseason after the league banned the substance in September, less than two months after the heat-stroke-related death of Minnesota Vikings Pro Bowl offensive tackle Korey Stringer. While an autopsy report detected no ephedrine in Stringer's system, products that included the stimulant -- commonly found in strength-building, weight-loss and energy-boosting supplements -- were discovered in Stringer's locker.

The league has informed its players via memo that there is growing evidence that ephedrine and its herbal form, ephedra, can cause several life-threatening conditions such as strokes, seizures, thermo-regulatory disorders and heart arrhythmias.

"The real stimulus for this thing is what happened with Korey Stringer," Fox said. "[The NFL] felt like that was a factor in him dying. If that didn't happen, we wouldn't be talking about this substance."

The NFL is the first U.S. professional sports league to ban ephedrine, and its efforts to stamp out its use is made more difficult by the fact that some Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs contain ephedrine or chemically related compounds. Players with asthma or allergies could be tripped up by the ban if their prescribed medications aren't in line with the league's new realities.

And that doesn't even address the recent prevalence of ephedrine use within the league as part of over-the-counter supplements that aid in the process of losing weight, building strength or boosting energy. When the league goes cold turkey starting July 1, what will be its success rate?

This week, Giants trainer Ronnie Barnes estimated that 75 percent of his team's roster used the stimulant in some form before it was banned by the league, with about 20 players continuing to use it after the ban because no league-wide testing was conducted.

"I would say that whatever our numbers are, they're probably pretty much league-wide and probably pretty much society-wide," Giants head coach Jim Fassel said. "I don't think our team is any different from any other team or society as a whole. I don't think those numbers are out of whack. The hard thing is we hold these players to different standards. That's going to be the difficult part, figuring out how we are going to bridge that gap if these guys can't be within these normal societal numbers."

Another challenge will be even identifying all the supplements and drugs that players now have to steer clear of. Ephedra is an ingredient in an estimated 200 supplements that are designed to help increase energy, build muscle or lose weight.

"It's not a stimulant that's just in a few areas," Fassel said. "It's in a lot of stuff. It's in cough medicine and some inhalants. I'm sure there are going to be trip-ups, because it's really hard to give a guy a list of all the stuff that it's in. That list would cover a lot of stuff. They just have to be diligent."

With the amount of emphasis that's being placed on the educational aspect of the league's anti-ephedrine effort, ignorance will not be an excuse after July 1, several head coaches said. There will be no gradual start-up to the testing, especially since it has the full backing of the NFL Players Association, and there was a 10-month gap between the ban and the testing.

"No one has an excuse," Titans head coach Jeff Fisher said. "But there are things that happen, and that's the unfortunate thing. Players have to understand that they have responsibility for what they put in their body. If they go into an ABC nutritional shop and they read what's on the label, and they think it's OK and they take it, and it's not, it's their fault. They have to be careful with that, and that's the issue.

"As far as supplements are concerned, the players need to be sure that the ones they're taking are regulated. The problem is probably 80 percent are unregulated, and half of them have tested positive for some type of banned substance as a general rule. So you have to be careful."

Fassel said he'll instruct his players to be treated exclusively by the team's trainers and doctors for any ailment more serious than a hangnail, in order to protect them from any unintentional exposure to ephedrine.

"That's hard to do, because we don't control these guys' lives," Fassel said. "But we don't want them going to any outside doctor. That way we can monitor what they're taking and we don't have any trip-ups. You really have to close up the circle."

But no matter how tightly you close it up, some players will roll the dice, Edwards said. Either because they don't believe they're going to get caught, or because they believe they need the extra edge that a substance like ephedrine might provide.

"It's a performance-based business, and it's hard for a player to all of a sudden think that something he's buying over the counter could be banned and affect his ability to play and get the job done," Edwards said. "It's up to the individual player to either say, 'You know what? I'm not doing it,' or 'I'm going to take a chance. If they test me, I won't be one of the guys that it shows up on.'"

Left unaddressed, for now, is the reality that the elimination of ephedrin in the NFL will spawn the players' search for a replacement substance or supplement, which could spawn another round of league legislation.

"I've been in the league since the 1970s, or for parts of the past four decades," Edwards said. "There's always going to be those guys that want a little extra or need a little extra and are trying to cut corners. They generally feel that they need to enhance their play. It's a never-ending battle. But that's just part of our society."

Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.

 

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