WASHINGTON - I'll be spending the day in Washington for the Congressional hearing on drugs in sports. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has graciously provided power strips for reporters, but they are restricting us from accessing their wireless network. So I will send updates from my Blackberry as often as I can. Stay tuned ...
12:29 p.m.: Standing outside the hearing room, chairman Rush said, "There might be a possibility that legislation might not be required."
And going back to the SpyGate question, the New York Congressman who made a mockery of himself went right up to Stern after the hearing and said, "I just want to thank you for your testimony." Stern whispered, "I'm a Giants fan." And they both laughed and went their merry ways.
12:24 p.m.: We're getting out of hand here, thanks to New York's own Vito Fossella. After he was done asking the witnesses for their feelings on testing high school athletes for steroids, Fossella turned his attention to Goodell and asked about SpyGate. "There's a lot of unhappy Jets fans." Goodell said, "We dealt with that very effectively." And this hearing ended on that note.
12:01 p.m.: Rep. Cliff Stearns (Fla.) asked the witnesses whether they would be willing to adopt the Olympic testing program, which is what Stearns endorses. Upshaw spoke first and said: "We feel our program is better than the Olympics in many ways." He later admitted that the Olympic drug testing program would look different if the Olympic athletes had a union. So when Upshaw said the football test is better, does he mean it is better for the athletes and not the sport? Sterns then pointed the same question to Fehr, who said, "We have an obligation to bargain standards," not to accept the Olympic program without negotiation. Stearns shot back, "That's not the question." Finally, Fehr said his problem with the Olympic drug testing policy is that it bans drugs that he said are legal for common folk to take, but not athletes. The baseball program, Fehr said, "Is pegged to U.S. law."
11:46 a.m.: The tone of this hearing has been very cordial, not the least bit confrontational. And the elephant in the room - the name Roger Clemens - has yet to be voiced.
11:44 a.m.: Fehr is really pushing the idea of getting a chemical marker in HGH. At least he admits HGH is a problem, something the other sports don't (NBA and NHL). Rep. Joe Barton of Texas then asked chairman Rush if the committee will be proposing a bill to have federal law that mandates certain testing requirements for all sports. "It is my full intention to move a bill," Rush said. Selig ultimately said he and the owners would support that; fehr said he thinks it is best to go through collective bargaining. Upshaw and Stern spoke up on behalf of collective bargaining.
Selig just changed his answer to say "I think we've proven collective bargaining works."
11:34 a.m.: Derek Jeter, king of staying out of all things controversial, was cited by Rush for his comments that players should have their blood tested for HGH. What do you think the odds are that Jeter now regrets saying that?
11:30 a.m.: Rush then followed with questions about HGH to everyone. If the only way to test was through a blood test and it is reliable, would you support using it?
Selig: Said that is a "long ways away." But "if at the end of this long process that's the only way we can deal with HGH, then yes."
Fehr: He dodged the question by saying they'd have to take a "hard look" at it.
Stern: No to HGH blood testing.
I missed Hunter's answer, and I apologize.
Goodall: Seemed open to it.
Upshaw: A defiant no.
Bettman: Yes, if only that was a last resort.
Kelly: One word answer yes, and good for him for admitting that.
11:25 a.m.: Rep. Rush begins Q and A session by asking every witness whether they feel the recommendations by the Mitchell Report should be adopted by federal mandate. Here are they answers:
Selig: yes
Fehr: collective bargaining
Stern: collective bargaining
Hunter: collective bargaining
Goodell: yes
Upshaw: collective bargaining
Bettman: collective bargaining
Kelly: no
11:20 a.m.: Kelly said, "anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and other muscle-enhancing substances do little to augment the performance of our athletes, whose success depends primarily on hand-eye coordination, speed, agility, endurance, communication, and most of all - teamwork." Amazing. You'd think he would have looked up HGH and what it does.
11:16 a.m.: NHL players' association executive director Paul Kelly, not surprisingly, agrees with Bettman that PEDs are not a problem in hockey. We'll see how the Congressmen handle these statements. The NBA officials made similar statements, as you'll see below in previous posts.
11:12 a.m.: Bettman just said "bulkiness from steroids is not desirable" to play hockey. When will these people learn not all steroids bulk you. Check out Winstrol, the steroid of choice for pitchers. Surely there are PEDs that benefit hockey players, and HGH immediately comes to mind.
11:10 a.m.: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman also doesn't believe steroids is an issue in his sport. (Cough. Cough. Sean Hill. Cough. Cough). "While our historical experience indicates that performance-enhancing drugs are not a problem in the NHL, we nonetheless believe that the public and our fans deserve to have confidence that our games are being played in an environment free of performance-enhancing substances."
We've been going for more than an hour and we're still on opening statements. Wow. my 10 p.m. flight home might be in jeopardy at this rate.
11 a.m.: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he and players' association head Gene Upshaw "believe we have been leaders in the effort" of killing steroids in sports. Goodall's written testimony about HGH starts by saying that it is "by no means restricted to athletes. To the contrary, it is used by movie stars, students, and many others. In short, the issue of growth hormone is one that extends far beyond sports." As if that makes it OK that athletes use it. He continues by saying no urine test is reliable yet, and a blood test is only used on a limited basis. This is the typical party line employed by most sports; but until it is tested for, the belief among the public is that it is widely used by pro athletes in all sports.
10:51 a.m.: NBA commissioner David Stern's opening statement says: "I believe that the NBA's current anti-drug program is strong, effective and appropriate for our sport, and remain committed to ensuring that it remains state of the art. I am confident that any necessary modifications to our program can be made through the collective bargaining process."
Billy Hunter, the NBA players' association executive director, boldly said: "Based on my experiences in the nearly 12 years I have served the NBA players, I firmly believe that the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is virtually non-existent in the NBA."
10:46 a.m.: Players association chief Don Fehr asked Congress to require a chemical marker be included in all perscription HGH so that it can be identified in tests. That's good, but that doesn't solve the issue because it would presumably be easy to find someone to sell HGH without the chemical marker.
10:40 a.m.: Selig says, "We had nearly 100 positive tests in the 2003 survey test and just two steroid positives in 2006 and three in 2007." He says that with pride, but does anyone really believe only two or three players are still using PEDs? Of course HGH is not tested for, and Selig said, "I recognize that HGH remains a problem for baseball and all sports."
10:37 a.m.: Bud Selig, in his opening statement, again took responsibility for baseball's steroids problem, something he had not admitted for years prior to a Congressional hearing last month. Oddly, that line of accepting responsibility is not included in Selig's opening statement that Congress gave to reporters.
10:33 a.m.: Rep. Rush, the committee chairman, said George Mitchell is not here because he is receiving radiation treatment for cancer in New York. "He is expected to have a full recovery," Rush said.
Also not here, Rush said, is Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment. "I'm extremely disappointed in his decision," Rush said. McMahon sent the committee a letter saying he could not attend because his lawyer had a scheduling conflict. That did not sit well with Rush. "I'm not convinced his reasons for not being here are worse than the difficulties" the other witnesses dealt with to be here, Rush said. Rush added that steroids in wrestling is probably worse than any of the other sports (even if pro wrestling is not a sport).
10:24 a.m.: Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), in his opening statement, may have taken a shot at the committee that held the Clemens-McNamee hearing when he opened by saying this committee here is the one that should be dealing with the problem of PEDs in sports. Hmm. He also referenced the fact that Texas recently instituted state-wide steroid testing for high school athletes, an important deterrent, he said.
10:22 a.m.: John Rocker is the first athlete to be named. Rep. Terry referenced Rocker's statement from a few weeks ago when he said team physicians discussed the proper use of steroids with him.
10:19 a.m.: Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) said, "Listening to sports talk radio, I think there are two main issues here. That using PEDs is cheating, and at the same time is a health risk, as well. "What is real is this exists in the high school level," he said. He reference, the hero worship, that prospective athletes will do what their idols do, even if that means illegal drugs.
10:15 a.m.: Now our New York Rep. Eliot l. Engel (D) is openly wondering whether Congress should be involved in this situation. "I think at the end of the day what will really get results is whether your business is impacted," he said. He wonders whether fans will get sick of everything not being on the up and up, saying sports has become on the same level of pro wrestling. "At the end of the day I don't think this will be resolved by Congress," he said. Fans, he believes, will force the leagues to fix its drug problems.
10:11 a.m.: This is going to be a long day if we just hear from the congressmen, not the commissioners and union heads. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wants MLB and the players' association to reopen the table to implement the recommendations of the Mitchell Report.
10:06 a.m.: Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), in his opening statement, believes we are just now seeing the effects of PED use among high school athletes. "We are seeing unprecendented numbers of high school and junior high athletes using PEDs. He even said he thinks people think HGH stands for 'helps generates home runs.' His big point, obviously, is the poor example pro sports are setting for young athletes.
10 a.m.: Rep. Cliff Stern (R-Fla.) is crediting Congress for the implementation of steroid testing in baseball. "I am already on record calling for the resignation of commissioner Selig," he said. He believes the Olympic anti-doping program should be adopted by all sports.
9:57 a.m.: Rep. Jan Shakowsky (D-Ill.) is the third member of Congress to read an opening statement and she is focusing on easily accessible steroids and other PEDs that are on the internet.
9:56 a.m.: Not to continually take shots at our congressmen, but the committee media relations official just gained approval to give reporters the secret code to their wireless network. However, reporters are having a hard time accessing the network, and the media relations official can't help because the hearing has started. D'oh.
9:52 a.m.: Rep. Ed Whitfield, in his opening statement, said he wants to focus this meeting on one sport that hasn't dealt with steroids yet - horse racing. (Whitfield is from Kentucky.)
9:47 a.m.: First awkward moment - Bud Selig yawned toward the end of Rush's opening statement.
9:46 a.m.: Rep. Bobby Rush, the chairman, opened the hearing by channeling Mark McGwire and saying he wasn't interested in the past. "The purpose of this hearing is to deliberate on a number of public policy issues that are either new or unresolved from our deliberations in the 109th Congress." He said he is interested preserving athletes' samples to test for steroids years later, to account for the performance-enhancing drugs we don't know about right now.
9:37 a.m.: We are moments from beginning the hearing titled "Drugs in Sports: compromising the health of athletes and undermining the integrity of competition." The commissioners of all four major sports are in the room getting settled.
The number of reporters at this hearing is considerably smaller than the last congressional hearing, which featured Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee on Feb 13.