May 09, 2007

The Mnew Adventures of Mnookin

The noted author/blogger Seth Mnookin had an excellent piece in the Boston Globe's magazine over the weekend about the issues of former athletes suffering brain damage, and how much responsibility the teams have to prevent such things. And in the piece, Mnookin addressed a question I've always pondered myself: When players are using steroids and/or other performance-enhancing drugs, how much do the team doctors know?

“You think it’s the doctors who are covering this up because it’s what the teams want?" asks a local team doctor. “You’re out of your mind. If you so much as hint to a player that you want to talk about the risks of, say, HGH [human growth hormone], you’re risking a lawsuit. You’ll have the union up your ass. You’ll have the player’s agent saying the team is just trying to find a way to knock down his value for his next contract. Eventually you throw up your hands. If a patient fights that much against [as little] as being educated, well, fine."
Makes me wonder even further about that strength and conditioning coach that the Yankees fired after their injury-plagued first month- and how in the world any team, in this day and age, would call such an official the "director of performance enhancement."

Posted by Stephen Silver at May 9, 2007 04:32 PM
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