NFL Star Gets Drug Suspension For Wanting Another Child (Get Your Hankies Out)

[rocktivity]

Last edited Tue Nov 18, 2014, 04:37 PM - Edit history (4)

Well, it turns out that there's a perfectly reasonable reason why the NFL's Robert Mathis was caught with a PED in his blood, and it's a real tear-jerker. Unfold your handkerchiefs and cue the DU "Cry Me River" String Quartet:

The six-time Pro Bowl member – and Super Bowl champion with the Colts – was suspended for four games, costing him $705,000, for testing positive for the fertility drug Clomid...banned by the NFL because it can be used to help improve a player’s performance.

Hadley Englehard, Mathis’s agent, says Mathis was taking Clomid for fertility purposes. “Robert is not a cheater. There is not one bit of evidence that Robert used this for anything but fertility,” Englehard said.

Mathis and his wife already have twin boys and a daughter, but they wanted to give Mathis’ ailing mother – diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer – a fourth grandchild. Mathis’ wife is now pregnant.

Dr. Steven Morganstern, the Atlanta doctor who treated Mathis for infertility, told ABC News that he didn't realize Mathis was an NFL player when he prescribed Clomid...
link

With a terminally ill mom, Mathis HAD to come up with that fourth grandchild, or else! Or else...something. And what thanks does he get? The NFL dares to put price on a player's love for his mother!

...Wait...what?

…Mathis' urologist told ESPN he initially did not know Mathis was an NFL player. However, Mathis said in his statement that he initially asked his doctor if the meds would trigger a positive drug test. Those two statements are, um, polar opposites...(And) what did Mathis put (as his) occupation...when (he) filled out his application to the doctor?

...(P)layers on each team are constantly reminded to know exactly what goes into their bodies...As a team captain, Mathis likely knew this better than other teammates....There is an independent medical specialist -- jointly appointed by the union and the league -- (who) players can go to if there is any doubt about any medications or supplements they want to ingest...Players have an app that lists every banned substance. Just plug in a name and get the info...Yet Mathis took none of those approaches, apparently...

Clomid (is)...also known as a classic chemical vehicle...used to mask performance enhancing....(I)f Mathis only used it for 10 days or so, as his agent says, that is not proof Mathis didn't use long enough to actually have any muscle-building benefits...
link

Oh, now that's REALLY unfair, expecting a pro athlete to practically broadcast to the whole world that his sperm doesn't know how to count! Telling that one doctor must have been humiliating enough -- would the NFL be happier if Mathis had made it the subject of a reality show?

What Englehard said was misleading was the NFL’s focus on the fact that the drug Mathis used, Clomid, is FDA approved only for women, not for men. Englehard said that doesn’t mean men can’t legitimately use it as a fertility drug...

Englehard also noted that the NFL sometimes gives therapeutic-use exemptions to players to allow them to use prescription drugs for medical purposes, even if those drugs are on the banned list. Englehard said the NFL has done that for players who use Adderall, and Englehard said the league even rescinded the fine and suspension for one of his own clients in a similar situation. According to Englehard, the NFL has even given multiple therapeutic-use exemptions to other players who use Clomid for fertility, and Englehard is baffled that the NFL is treating Mathis so harshly while allowing other players to use the same substance.
link

Game, set and match, doctor, I mean, Mr. Englehard -- way to put those Mathis haters in their place! The ONLY difference between Mathis and the NFL players who sought the exemption for Clomid is that Mathis DIDN'T seek the exemption -- so there, too, nyah nyah nyah!


rocktivity

[Auggie]

1. Yep ...