The always controversial Bobby Valentine is at it again, claiming that performance enhancing drugs are no different than weightlifting and saying that they will eventually find mainstream acceptance.
The former MLB manager and current Sacred Heart athletic director made the comments in an SI Now appearance on Friday, where he was quizzed about PEDs in sports and whether they were a good thing.
“Probably, if you want to see the best out of your athlete,” Valentine told SI’s Maggie Gray. “If it’s not harmful to the athlete, the performance enhancing’s weight lifting, or nutrition, and getting your rest, and in 2015 and beyond, there’s also this way of enhancing with a medical form that makes you better.”
So Valentine is effectively comparing performance enhancing drugs to weightlifting or eating right. He goes on to say that fans want to see players performing at their highest level.
When asked if fans would also like to see everyone competing on a level playing field, Valentine doubled down.
“The people who lift weights correctly, the ones who have the best strength and conditioning coaches, actually perform better,” he said. “I think it’s the same type of idea, the idea that because it’s a drug and you’re taking it from the outside, that it’s bad. But there’s a lot of really good drugs out there that we do take that make us feel better and perform better, and I think these PEDs that people talk about that are performance enhancers will eventually get into the mainstream.”
Valentine wants us to believe that PEDs aren’t really harmful and are no different than lifting weights. That seems an obvious stretch. It also seems highly unlikely that PEDs will gain the mainstream acceptance he believes they will anytime soon, as all leagues are getting more and more serious about drug testing and controlling what athletes put into their bodies. They’re very strange comments, but coming from the guy who once used September 11th to bash the Yankees and praise the Mets, it’s not all that surprising.
H/T Big League Stew
