When most NFL players get busted for using drugs, those drugs tend to be of the performance-enhancing variety. Yes, you get the occasional marijuana suspension, but mostly it’s guys like Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing, who was recently popped for suspected steroid masking. In those cases, you get the sense that the players are actually trying to improve, even if they’re using nefarious means to do so.
That doesn’t appear to be the case in the Australian Football League. Last season, 14 players failed drug tests involving drugs that might not be quite so performance enhancing:
Chief AFL medico Dr Peter Harcourt said it was clear cocaine was the dominant drug of choice.
“The emerging drug over the past two years has been cocaine,” Harcourt said.
“The trend has been to stimulants – cocaine, ecstasy and ice. Marijuana and cannabinoids have actually dropped off quite dramatically since the start of the program.”
14 failed drug tests for cocaine seems (pardon the pun) awfully high. Since the program was instituted as a response to, well, stuff like this, the overall number of positive tests has dropped. However, the number of positive tests for “cocaine, ice & ecstasy” is up from 12 in 2008 to 14 in 2009, and two of those tests are 2nd strikes. Players aren’t identified until they test positive a 3rd time, and there’s some question as to whether that’s the right move. Is it better to “name and shame” drug offenders — which is essentially what the NFL does — or is the AFL better off trying to help players wrestle drug demons in private first? In the wake of players like Fremantle’s Michael Johnson and Geelong’s Matthew Stokes getting caught by police rather than the league, Collingwood boss Mick Malthouse suggests there are massive double-standards within this policy:
The only difference between Johnson and last year’s AFL 12 is that Johnson was caught by police, not the AFL. Johnson has already been humiliated in the court of public opinion, will face a court of law and, no doubt, a lengthy club suspension…
I am an AFL coach responsible for 40 players, yet I have no idea if any of my players have been caught by the AFL for using recreational drugs. They could be 12 players from other clubs or 12 Collingwood players. I simply don’t know.
If that’s the case, that’s a huge image problem for the AFL. As Malthouse points out, Ben Cousins never tested positive for cocaine under league policy. If AFL Commissioner Andrew Demetriou really wants to stamp out cocaine use among AFL players, he might need to start ruling with an iron fist, a la NFL commish Roger Goodell. I suspect many footy fans believe Demetriou isn’t capable of that.
