Tag: Sports Law

Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Boxing: Preventing the Sweet Science from Becoming Chemical Warfare – Note by Jonathan H. Koh

From Volume 87, Number 2 (January 2014)
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Throughout its history, the sport of boxing has been known as much for its corruption and scandals as its courageous fighters and memorable bouts. Indeed, it has been referred to by some as the “red light district of sport[s].” Even today, boxing is plagued by fixed fights, exploitative promoters, greedy sanctioning organizations, unnecessary health risks to boxers, incompetent state athletic commissions, and a confusing array of weight divisions with a multitude of world champions. In fact, some of these issues were so rampant that Congress, in 1996 and 2000, passed federal legislation attempting to address them.

 

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A Congressional Carve Out: The Necessity for Uniform Application of Professional Sports Leagues’ Performance-Enhancing Drug Policies – Note by Lee Linderman

From Volume 84, Number 3 (March 2011)
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INTRODUCTION “The use of steroids [in sports] has become a public health crisis. Half a million kids a year in the U.S. are taking steroids . . . and many of them do this because they are emulating their sports heroes.” In the past several years, performance-enhancing drug (“PED” or “steroid”) use in major professional sports has captured the attention of not only average fans, but also lawmakers in Congress. Rampant steroid abuse in Major League Baseball (“MLB”) catalyzed a 2005 congressional hearing at which famous ballplayers like Mark McGwire testified. In 2009, two National Football League (“NFL”) players challenged their suspensions for using substances banned by the NFL collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) in court. This suggests sports leagues may lack the legal authority to conclusively bargain for and uniformly apply certain aspects of a CBA such as the PED policy—a fact that compelled NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to seek congressional intervention in the steroids arena.

During this so-called steroids era, sports radio and television shows have shifted in focus from the magic of record-breaking performances to the possibility that PED use tainted those achievements. Cynics have cast the entire 1990s as a statistical lie, claiming there is no way to tell who was taking PEDs and who was not; as a result, many commentators have recommended adding asterisks to individual or team records that indicate those records might have been tainted by PED abuse. Scholars from a variety of fields have explored how PED use has negatively affected the integrity of professional sports, the medical dangers of taking PEDs, and how professional athletes’ use of PEDs has adversely affected youth athletes. In response to this outburst of PED use in professional sports and the subsequent explosion of literature decrying it, leagues such as the NFL and MLB have significantly increased the penalties for players caught using PEDs in an attempt to cleanse the leagues’ images.

 

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