After years of keeping mum on the steroid allegations against him, Mark McGwire suddenly made a public apology. He issued a statement Monday about his steroid use for almost a decade. That was the time when he broke the home run record in baseball. But the most interesting part right now is the way McGwire handles the issue. Most baseball writers believe that the admission of the baseball legend was carefully planned and done with the help of a public relation professional. Many people wonder how he manages to appear in several media outfit in just one day discussing his steroid story. McGwire’s interview and appearances include USAToday, ESPN, MLB Network and other media.

Mcgwire’s PR man is no other than Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary of President George W. Bush from January 2001 to July 2003. Fleischer set up a consulting firm Ari Fleischer Sports Communications in 2008 which handles crisis management for most sports organization. The firm is a joint venture with IMG Sports & Entertainment. IMG is another sports agency which handles big names in the industry including Tiger Woods.

Some of the clients of Fleischer include the Major League Baseball and National Football League. In 2008, he was hired by the Green Bay Packers to handle their problems with star player quarterback Brett Favre. The management of the Bowl Championship Series also contracted the firm to improve their image. Aside from handling sports related cases, Fleischer was recently hired by the office of the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The objective is to improve the country’s positive media coverage in the United States.

McGwire’s live and tearful interview with the veteran sports journalist Bob Costas on the MLB Network raised eyebrows of some fans and critics. They still question the sincerity of McGwire.  He doesn’t believe that steroids help him perform better in baseball but critics think otherwise. When asked by Costas on his steroid use, Mcgwire insisted that he used the drugs to speed up his recovery from injuries and it did not improve his performance. Ann Killion of SI.com wrote in his article, “Oh please, it’s 2010. We’re not morons.” She also added that even if McGwire doesn’t believe steroids helped him hit a baseball further, he still had an unfair advantage. “Using steroids to recover in a game where everyone is fighting for a job is cheating,” she said.

Dave Perkins of The Star commented that the scripted apology of McGwire will not improve his Hall of Fame chances. “The bottom line here is that McGwire was a marginal hall of fame candidate in these eyes and remains so. His steroid use, which was obvious and taken for granted here, didn’t enter into this equation chiefly because there’s no way to know who was and who wasn’t using PEDs back then, or exactly how level and legal the playing field was. Or wasn’t,” he said. Perkins said that the guidelines for the Hall of Fame candidate are clear that the player should possess “integrity, sportsmanship and character.”

Major League Baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, welcomes the decision of Mark Mcgwire. “I am pleased Mark McGwire has confronted his use of performance-enhancing substances as a player. Being truthful is always the correct course of action,” he said. “This statement of contrition I believe will make Mark’s re-entry to the game much smoother and easier,” the commissioner added.

He is considered as “the best offensive lineman prospect ever.” Green Bay Packers made him the second overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft. And now, Tony Mandarich is so different from what he used to be, standing beside a lectern inside the Natrona County High School Auditorium. Mandarich is said to have lived a life of Bacchanalian excess which ultimately led to addiction, disgrace, near-ruin, and deliverance. He however admitted that he lived a good life after experiencing the “extremely high highs and extreme low lows.”

The story of Mandarich as a former junkie, now clean is hoping to inspire especially the athletes who also suffered addiction. In the said event, with almost 100 people in attendance, Mandarich bravely told his tale with a blend of humility and endurance that common addict who has found recovery. In his story, he tackled about his boyhood dream of being a professional athlete, works hard in attaining that dream, his use of steroids to achieve the goal, and its demise. Mandarich’s story is actually a representation of the state’s annual Methamphetamine and Substance Abuse Conference which started last Wednesday and ended in Thursday evening.

Mandarich’s story is not just about his painful story of addiction as it also shows how he redeemed himself. “I knew that I had to share this message with others,” he said. Born in Canada, He admitted to have a really good childhood. With everything that he needs, it seems that he can’t ask for anything more. But tragedy is inevitable. At 11, he is already a big fan of football and spends his Sunday watching it and finally decided to want to play in the NFL. With that dream, his life revolved around lifting weights, running and training for the football field.

He later on moved to Ohio during his senior year of high school to attract college recruiters. It was also that same year hat Mandarich had experience his very first steroid. That time, he was pressing 315 pounds, and three weeks later, he had 330 pounds. “I just did a little bit and I got great gains. So my next thought was, ‘If I do a lot, I’ll get greater gains.’ ”

During college, he was a star offensive lineman at Michigan State University. And still, steroids was his companion as he injected his body with cocktails of steroids. With the 1989 NFL draft approaching, he dropped out of college and moved to California to work with his personal trainer, who is a chief steroid provider. In one of his days of weightlifting, he complained that his body was aching, and it was right then and there that he got his first painkiller injection. After that, he disclosed, that he injected painkillers six to seven times a day for the next six years.

He also had the chance to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated and finally made it into the NFL. “I was the second pick (in the draft), and I was a drug addict,” he said. “And I hid it very well.” But in 1992, the Packers cut him. “I embarrassed myself, I embarrassed my family and I embarrassed the Green Bay Packers,” he said. He added that at the time, “I felt they had wronged me, when in fact I was the one doing all the wronging.”

He spent the next three years living with his family in Michigan, drinking and popping 60 to 70 painkiller pills a day. He wanted to clean up, he said, but the addiction spoke louder than everything else in his life. With the help of a treatment program, Mandarich, overcame his addiction in 1995. And finally his chance at redemption is near when Indianapolis Colts offered him a two-year contract. After three sober years with the Colt, Tony Mandarich finally retired due to a shoulder injury.

The home run king finally admits that he took steroids. In a statement to the Associated Press, Mark McGwire acknowledged that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade. McGwire was dragged into steroid controversy when he was implicated by his former teammate Jose Canseco. His name was mentioned in the book “Juiced” authored by Canseco. The slugger also appeared in the Congressional hearing in 2005 but denied that he took any performance enhancing drugs.

McGwire also apologized to the fans for his steroid use. “I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize,” he said. “Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.”

After the steroid accusations, Mark MacGwire’s name was always linked to steroids use. His denial and keeping silent on the issue did not stop the media in finding evidences that will prove his use of performance enhancers. When a former dealer was arrested by FBI agents through Operation Equine, he was also implicated. Based on records, anabolic steroid dealer Curtis Wenzlaff supplied McGwire and Canseco with steroids when they were still playing for the Oakland A’s. Greg Stejskal, who led the investigation, already warned the Major League Baseball of the steroid problem but they were ignored by the management.

McGwire’s involvement into steroids did not help him in the Hall of Fame even if he has a very impressive record. For three years now, McGwire only recieved less than 30% of the votes which means he is still far from becoming a Hall of Famer. HOF guidelines require players to possess integrity, sportsmanship and character. Sports analysts believe that McGwire’s chances to be included in the Hall of Fame will increase if he admits his steroid use. Just like what Alex Rodriguez did when he was forced to admit in February last year that he took “Boli”, an anabolic steroid. A-Rod was persecuted by baseball fans but was later accepted when he made an apology and made an impressive return to the field.

He retired in 2001 and maintained a low profile life. He avoided discussions on his steroid use but late October he was brought back to St. Louis Cardinals as a hitting coach. John Mozeliak, the Cardinals general manager, told the public that McGwire will be addressing the steroid allegations when he return to the game. And finally, after the long wait, McGwire took the courage to admit publicly that he was once a steroid user.

Mark McGwire said that it’s time for him to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. “I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989-90 off-season and then after I was injured in 1993 I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the 90s including during the 1998 season,” he added.

Now let us wait for the reaction of baseball fans. Would they accept the apology or persecute the former baseball star? Should Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens follow McGwire’s decision? Should we erase his home run record because it could be due to the performance enhancers he took during that time?

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart was originally tasked to oversee the Olympic-style, random blood testing of what is known the most lucrative boxing match in history—between WBO welterweight king and seven-division titlist, Manny Pacquiao and five-time champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr. The said match was slated for March 13 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But after all the controversy, the negotiation for the match is off indefinitely. Pacquiao is set to defend against Joshua Clottey of Accra, Ghana, at The Dallas’ Stadium on March 13 while Mayweather is targeting for a match up with Pauli Malignaggi of New York at the MGM Grand.

The blood-testing to be done by USADA, in general, and, by The Nevada Athletic Commission, in particular, to the two fighters is probably the very first time in boxing. The sport only uses urinalysis in order to detect the use of steroids and other illegal drugs. In a recent interview with FanHouse, Tygart related the differences between blood and urinalysis testing, its effects, and its need on why it has to be implemented in boxing.

According to Tygart, there are actually various potent performance enhancing drugs that only blood can detect. Some of them include HGH- human growth hormone; HBOC- synthetic hemoglobin; transfusions; certain forms of EPO, such as Mircera, which is essentially a designer EPO.

There is also what is known as parameter testing, which is also done by blood, or the biological passport testing. This kind of testing does not detect a specific drug like HGH. However, there are different parameters or biological markers that are natural to everyone’s body. And if you look at someone’s body, you will notice variability or fluctuations in those naturally occurring markers that everyone has. Once fluctuations are seen, you can now determine that those were actually caused by drug use and certain categories of drug use. “I think that it’s fair to say that there are several, very potent, performance enhancing drugs that only blood can detect, and there is an entirely different method of detecting broader categories of drug use through parameter testing that is done with the blood,” said Tygart.

And when asked regarding the request of the Mayweather camp of the blood-testing, Tygart said that there were already numerous conversations on both the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps on the blood-testing details. “There are 3,000-plus athletes around the U.S. who are at the top of their game making more money or equal to the money that these guys do, who are subject to it, and it works for them, and they’re the best that there is, and that’s what we want.”

Tygart added that there is a real safety and health concern that everyone needs to be aware of. The USADA program, he clarified, does not do any inconvenience to an athlete, including the boxer’s inability to prepare or train for their fight. “So it’s hard for me to understand — and this is not a specific comment about any of the fighters involved here — but it’s hard for me to understand why any athlete wouldn’t want the same program that all of our Olympic athletes have.”

He also took Shane Mosley as an example. Mosley was reported to have used designer steroid and blood enhancing products like EPO. Tygart said that this would only show how these performance enhancing drugs can do for boxers.

People usually associate steroids to professional wrestling. It is a common notion that wrestlers having big muscles and physique are using steroids. There are already several professional wrestlers who died because of the possible direct or indirect effects of taking steroids. The WWE, on the other hand, belies that the deaths of most wrestlers were due to anabolic steroids. The Wellness Policy of the WWE has already caught a few and imposed sanctions on those wrestlers. But many critics say that the policy is a failure because they believe that the actual number of steroid user in the sport is huge.

With the endless debate on whether the WWE should scrap the anti-doping policy or intensify its crackdown against the use of performance enhancers, let us discuss some of the reasons why wrestlers depend on steroids. Joe Burgett of Bleacherreport.com has a good discussion on this issue. He pointed out why pro-wrestling can’t get out of steroid controversies. “We have seen it as a land of giants for so long, and all young wrestlers want to make sure they are huge individuals so they can possibly fit into the WWE one day.” Burgett observed that wrestling is slowly evolving. “If you look at wrestling today, it’s not the era of giants as much anymore. We are seeing a ton of regular sized guys or smaller ones have success,” he said.

Wrestlers are now more concerned on how they will perform inside the ring and not on how big they should be. “So this may be the time that we start seeing more Independent guys worry about how good they are in the ring and not so much about how big they are. But now, we are starting to see many promotions promote the little guy or the average sized guy,” Burgett said. He also mentioned some of the WWE stars who performed well for the fans like Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Austin Aries, Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles.

Burgett said that anabolic steroids use in professional wrestling will be hard to eliminate since most wrestlers need this drug for medical reasons. The nature of their job is one of the reasons why they opted to take drugs which can help them to be always 100 percent fit the entire year. Most of their concern is on how to address pain and recover from injuries. “It’s not that they were trying to use them to get bigger, but that they used them to heal and get back faster,” said Burgett. Batista and Triple H were reported using anabolic steroids but it was advised by their doctor to treat their injuries. Steroids are commonly used by doctors to speed up recovery from injury or surgery. It only becomes a problem when wrestlers abuse this drug. “The issue is that many abuse them, and that is when things go wrong. However, the best thing to take pain away is not pain killers at all, but steroids,” said in his article.

It will be a good thing if wrestling fans will accept the changes in the WWE where fighters will not win because of their bulky muscles but because they are really good in what they do. “Instead of seeing the huge muscled up freak of a man, they will see regular people who are incredible wrestlers,” he said. Burgett also added that this will make it where steroids would mainly be used for medical use and not so much to get huge like it was before. “Once people realize they don’t have to be on steroids to do well in wrestling, the better.”

If we will believe this allegation by Earnest Graham of Bucs, we can say that the NFL anti-doping policy is a failure. In an interview by the WQYK-radio in Tampa last month, Buccaneers RB Earnest Graham said that he believes 30% of NFL players are using performance enhancing drugs like HGH or human growth hormone. Major sports organizations like the NFL are continuously fighting against the use of any performance enhancing drugs of its players. League officials may just brush off this allegation but for some people they may already conclude that there is really a big problem in the league in curtailing the use of banned substances.

JoeBucsfan.com quoted Graham saying that it would not shock him if a lot of NFL players are using HGH. “I would say, I’ve heard a lot of people, even in Hollywood the average person is (using) HGH. It’s supposed to be this great thing. Especially in a sport like football. You know, I would assume that a lot of guys have access to it and are using it. I would assume so. I wouldn’t doubt it, man, with what’s at stake,” he said. Graham also believes that players are tempted to use HGH to achieve optimum performance as expected by their teams. “Especially in this game, not having guaranteed contracts you know with so much riding on your performance, a game that tears your body down like that, I would assume that a lot of people are making that decision to use HGH,” Graham said.

Another reason why most NFL players are doing it is the insufficient test being conducted by the league to detect its use. This remark from Graham was also in relation to the case of Dr. Anthony Galea, the Canadian doctor who is under investigation for supplying professional athletes with HGH. MLB players such as Mets Jose Reyes, Huston Street of Oakland Athletics and pitcher John Patterson of the Washington Nationals were some of the patients of the doctor. Although these players were treated with other methods to speed up their recovery from the injuries, the involvement of the doctor to human growth hormone and Actovegin raises the possibility that he also prescribed it to his patients.

As Graham said, if players see that the use of HGH can help them in the quick recovery from injuries, they will be influenced to experiment with it. “It gets done by, you know, just knowing a guy. Seeing how it benefits another guy. That’s how it ends up, you know. Most guys don’t have access to it, don’t know how to go about it, probably won’t take the time to check on it. So usually another guy refers it, you know, to someone and that’s how all that starts,” Graham added.

Meanwhile, Broncos quarterback Chris Simms, a former patient of Dr. Galea was also linked to HGH use. Simms admitted that Dr. Galea helped him in his elbow injury in 2007 but denied using the drug. “I’ve never taken HGH and (Actovegin), I’ve never heard of it,” he said. Simms underwent a 3-month plasma therapy with Dr. Galea. “I basically had muscles in my core that were not functioning at all so he got that working right,” Simms told the media. “And then because my core wasn’t working right, my elbow starting hurting because I was throwing all arm. And I did take two plasma shots in my elbow. There’s nothing to hide about it.”

The QB defended the doctor saying that he helped him recover from his elbow injury. “Honestly, he saved my career. He helped me in so many ways. The doctor is truly a great guy and I have no doubt he was not involved in anything shady at all,” he told the DenverPost. He was also disappointed when he was dragged into the controversy. “It’s screwed up. Here I am in the locker room today and everybody’s riding me on it. And now some people are going to have a perception because they see my name next to HGH. It’s a little disheartening,” the quarterback added.

In a related story, new information