SPOILER: it’s impossible to understand.
Let’s start from the beginning. Back on June 7, a random Thursday afternoon, a couple of prominent ESPN people break the news that Julian Edelman will be facing a four-game suspension for a violation of the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy. Naturally, the sports world freaks out. Opposing fanbases call Edelman a cheater, sports talk radio hosts contrive conspiracy theories live on air and Patriots fans refuse to believe that the fan favorite could ever possibly do something like this.
The next day, Edelman took to his Instagram story to apologize, stating that he doesn’t know what happened. That is, of course, the typical cliche statement made from guys who get popped. A few days later, Albert Breer comes out saying that the league doesn’t even know what the triggering substance was in Edelman’s test, calling it “unrecognizable”.
The amount of things wrong in such a short summary is overwhelming beyond belief. First things first, the fact that the situation got leaked by reporters is extremely odd. The NFL is insanely protective of every single case that they deal with, no matter how big or small, in order to protect both the players and everyone involved from teams to doctors and so on, whether it’s PEDs or domestic abuse or what have you. Most notably in positive PED tests, there will only be an announcement made if the player loses the appeal. The announcement is usually out of the blue, and will come from the team or the player or a big-name guy like Adam Schefter, because the league and everyone involved really cannot make a peep about what’s going on in the process.
Secondly, the substance that triggered the test was unrecognizable. So, why did the league immediately slap a specific punishment on Edelman if they don’t even know what the substance is, let alone two-plus months after the test was performed and came back positive? Look, I’m not one of *those* Patriots fans who think the league is out to get the team, but what the hell? I know I’m young, but I’ve never heard of or seen something like this happen the way the NFL is handling it. To build off of that, fun fact: the league can’t suspend or even penalize Edelman if they fail to determine the substance. There’s something that the league still isn’t telling us weeks later, and keeping whatever it may be from the public is only hurting them more as the days go by.
I don’t want it to be swept under the rug that the league allowed as much information to get out as they did about the failed test, the pending suspension slapped on Edelman, the appeal from the player and the fact that the substance was “unrecognizable”. That is so strange and something I’ve personally never seen before from a league that religiously keeps such information from coming out. Again, there’s something fishy going on behind the curtain and something else is being kept from the public that is only hurting the NFL. Not good!
Now, to those who are upset, disappointed or surprised by Edelman supposedly taking a banned substance: it’s time to open your eyes, my friends. The stigma around PEDs in sports in general is that they’re bad and if an athlete uses them, it makes them a cheater. That is so very false in so many ways. I would be willing to bet that 99 percent of athletes in any form of contact sports take something to help them quickly recover so they can be at their best whenever they play next, whether it’s less than 24 hours or in a week. Athletes of any kind take a beating and no normal human can immediately naturally bounce back from something like that and continuously take the same hits. I hope I live to see the day where athletes can do what they need to do in a fairly healthy way and not be punished or shunned for it. Where would we be if it weren’t for the steroid era in baseball? I don’t really want to know.
Athletes who are coming off of major injury or surgery, such as Edelman, 100 percent take something to help them recover faster so they can get back on the field and get back to their previous self. I’m even more okay with athletes “using” something in order to get them back to where they were pre-injury. Every single athlete uses them anyways; it’s not like they’re gaining an unfair advantage over others from using something. Players can say whatever they want, but to some degree, it’s pretty much widely known that they’re collectively taking something to in some way keep them in their prime for as long as possible.
As far as the whole Alex Guerrero thing goes, the fact that he even needs to be brought up in this situation is unreal to me. The second I saw the tweets about Edelman’s failed test, I knew Guerrero would be mentioned and slandered mainly by those in the sports talk radio business. You’re simply ignorant if you think he has anything to do with this. Players who work with Guerrero are only around him for so long in one day; especially in the offseason, players are doing lots of work at home or with a teammate and doing small things to work up to training camp. I can’t say I’ve ever been in the TB12 facility but I’d be willing to bet the jar of quarters I have in my bedroom that Guerrero is not injecting half of the Patriots roster with PEDs and calling it a day. If an athlete is taking something that they shouldn’t be taking, they’re doing it on their own and it was most likely their own decision.
Lastly, this is kind of random, but to the Patriots fans who are protecting Edelman but still continue to blast Peyton Manning for doing what he did: it’s time to chill. Yes, we all hate Peyton and that’s one thing that I know we can all agree on, which I think is very special. Although, you can’t cry wolf about Peyton but brush off Edelman’s situation. Either you’re okay with the use of PEDs in sports or you’re not. It’s really that simple. I’m not saying you have to become Peyton Manning’s number one fan. I know I will go to my grave despising that (insert bad word here) but I’m not one to throw a hissy fit over his particular case. I have a long list of plenty of other reasons to hate him before I throw the HGH thing in his face.
The moral of the story is, if you’re a Patriots fan, please don’t shun Julian Edelman. If you’re not a Patriots fan, I advise you to open your eyes and realize that the athletes you love are just like him. Some guys get popped, some guys don’t get popped. That’s the way life goes. Some guys are good at hiding it, some guys aren’t. You have to be dumb to see the hits that Edelman takes on a weekly basis and not suspect that he’s doing something to help keep his body in tip-top shape. That goes for any athlete like Edelman in any sport. I have hope that one day, sports fans will finally be informed about this topic and realize that both the athletes and the sports they play are evolving.
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