A year ago, Gary Bettman, NHL commissioner, stood before U.S. lawmakers and announced that there are no steroid problems in hockey. But now, NHL is also tainted with steroid controversy after the allegations made by Richard Thomas that he supplied illegal performance-enhancing drugs to NHL athletes. This allegation could fuel a BALCO-like investigation in hockey. In an article written by Dave Feschuk at thestar.com, he said NHL and the player’s associated must treat Thomas’ claims as a crisis. Thomas revealed that he sold his anabolic steroids to professional athletes including the members of the Washington Capitals. The league has to make sure that it spurs immediate change to the league’s drug testing policy. “They’ll go on the offensive—and dispense with the futile questioning of the Thomas’ alleged customers in D.C., who said that they know nothing about nothing—instead of employing the wait-and-see defense of baseball commissioner Bud Selig,” the article continues.

Accusations have already been made on steroids in the national winter game. Dick Pound, previous world anti-doping czar, estimated that the third of the NHL’s 700-some players were juicing. However, no concrete evidence is found to support Pound’s claim. Bryan Berard, ex Leaf’s defenseman was found to have used anabolic steroid in 2006 on a drug test conducted by the U.S. anti-doping authorities prior to the Turin Olympics. Even Dave Morissette, an ex goon, wrote in his 2005 memoir that the use of steroids and other stimulants is already prevalent in the league. However, there were no positive, only pure hearsay and no smoking gun. Last year, Bettman said that the “alleged benefits of steroid use…are not consistent with playing hockey at the highest level of the sport.”

The article also states that “Bettman can’t be of the belief that the same family of drugs that made Ben Johnson the fastest man in the world wouldn’t benefit NHL players, none of whom could possible be interested in becoming quicker and stronger and better able to recover from injuries.” Today, professional players are under pressure to keep multi-million-dollar jobs. And these athletes are tested at a maximum of thrice a year but are not tested in the post-season or the off-season. This kind of set-up is called a “sham.”

In professional sports , athletes are lured by riches and team owners have a vested interest in putting on the best product. Steroid use has been an industry wide practice which is condoned and openly endorsed by both athletes and the management. The public is already familiar on the dark side of long term use of steroids but it favors the athletes because it promises bold results.

Feschuk also wrote in his article that it is hard not to say that hockey executives are well aware of steroid use in NHL. Damien Cox even reported a few months before that Lou Lamoriello, a New Jersey Devils GM and a former member of the board of the steroid-scarred New York Yankees, has challenged the involved players to accept the terms of a stricter drug testing protocol.

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