This SWATS story is exploding by the day.
Now, from the head of the Sports With Alternatives To Steroids (a known and admitted steroid dealer), comes word that he witnessed five members of the 2011-2012 Alabama Crimson Tide football team (the first of the back-to-back) take The Ultimate Spray (which contains a deer-antler extract which contains IGF-1 (Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1, which it's own website states is a precursor for the production of HGH), an illegal performance enhancer under all relevant American sports associations) under their tongues before the BCS National Championship Game against LSU that year.
Sports Illustrated went into more detail, in that the Alabama players sought out any edge they could find to win the national championship against LSU.
The product is publicly available. It costs about $70.00 a bottle.
(In separate SWATS news, Vijay Singh is an admitted user, and was unaware that the product was, in fact, banned. According to Sports Illustrated, the PGA only took action against the deer-antler extract in 2011, forcing two endorsees to stop their actions regarding the product and company (Mark Calcavecchia and Ken Green.))
One of the players noted to have met with SWATS that night was Quinton Dial, a 300-pound lineman for BOTH of Alabama's national titles.
You know what this means, right??
They prove this (Key is stated in the SI article to have been at the meeting -- it is unknown if he actually took the deer-antler extract), and BOTH titles go bye-bye -- even as Alabama claims (and the truth of this claim is abjectly irrelevant! If the players took the substance without Alabama's knowledge, they become ineligible on the spot.) that SWATS had at least two cease-and-desist letters against them. The players would've taken this action behind the Crimson Tide's back.
In fact, the first of those letters (according to SI's Alabama blog) was from March, 2009! So Alabama has been dealing with these jokers for ALL THREE of their BCS National Championships in this current dynasty.
This could take the entire house of cards down.
Living in Alabama, I can't wait to pick up a paper today. They are going to be so pissed off....The Auburn title, no one has let that go yet, since Cam Newton got by with being paid under the table, but if this holds up, they will really be extremely pissed.
ReplyDeleteI've seen enough from Tide fans in my life to honestly believe that they take football as if it was religion. It can be downright scary being in the same room with them when they lose and you say something like "Well that was a fair game".
Realistically, it all goes back to my bolded comment in the Dan Tan piece:
ReplyDeleteWith such a corporate nature of sports worldwide, but especially in America, pre-determined outcomes (and other associated malarkey) become FORCED.
Consider what happens if this story has sufficient legs.
This will mean that, at minimum, over and above Reggie Bush, THE LAST FOUR BCS National Championships will ALL have been illegitimate. And, at that point, you have to wonder at what situation that some entity (not talking NCAA here) might step in on all parties involved (including, say, ESPN???)...
Well this year I had a strange feeling all along it would come down to Notre Dame and Alabama. I felt like that's what they wanted more than anything. Screw having a better team in there, put 2 storied franchises up in there to go head to head against each other for the first time in over 20 years. I felt this coming all the way back in October. They did not care about the outcome, just having Notre Dame in there was a clear sign of making money.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how they will try to manipulate the playoff stuff that is supposed to come with college football.