I was peeping the Winnipeg Free Press sports section when I noticed a intriguing headline – “Bombers reversing routines… and peeing in bottles.” The article penned typed by current Bomber hoggie Doug Brown discusses the fact that the Bombers were asked for urine samples. This is not out of the ordinary for sports – apparently teams in the CFL do it all the time rarely do this to screen for illness but not for drugs. Brown writes:
“but testing for recreational and performance-enhancing drugs is currently illegal in the CFL, and thereby these submissions do pose potential risks for the player.”
Brown added:
“If any club decided to do additional testing on a number of players privately — to see what kind of lifestyles they have been leading — who would be there to stop them from committing these prohibited procedures?”
Brown correctly points out that CFL teams do not need a reason to cut a player – they could test for any drug and cut ties with said player.
However, Ricky Williams was on a year-long drug suspension from the NFL and was welcomed with open arms to T.O. – where he had no incentive to quit toking. But Williams was (apparently) tested by the Argos last season.
Jim Bender of the Winnipeg Sun weighed in on the pee tests. He mentioned the positive (sorry) side of the tests:
“Bomber medical staff did discover that Gilles Lezi’s had a kidney ailment which meant a flunked physical.”
He talked to Brown as well- here’s more from Dougie:
“The PA is now talking about standardizing those tests and clearly define what you can and cannot test the urine for, because right now there is no drug testing policy in the CFL. What we’ve been told is it’s a health screening type of thing.”
can test urine for: chlamydia, kidney disease
cannot test urine for: ‘roids, cocaine
It seems as if for right now the league could care less if you’re on drugs and I’m not sure the product is any worse. If a guy is on HGH in the CFL he won’t have to worry about a suspension or public humiliation he’ll just have to worry about tackling or scoring TD’s.
