The Seattle Seahawks have had more suspensions related to performance-enhancing drug use since 2011 than other other team in the NFL. Five Seahawks players have been disciplined for violating the league’s PED policy since December 2011, with cornerback Richard Sherman winning an appeal during that time.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, whose team shares a division with Seattle, said it is hard not to notice the recurring theme coming from their division rivals.
“Is it a concern? I’ve definitely noticed it,” Harbaugh said when asked about Seattle’s PED problem, via CSNBayArea.com. “You don’t know what (substance) it is. I mean, even when people say what it is, you don’t know that’s what it is. It’s this thrown out or it’s that. But that’s usually the agents or the players themselves saying, for example, Adderall. The NFL doesn’t release what it actually is. You have no idea.”
Adderall seems to be the safe excuse for players who fail drug tests, as it does not carry the same type of stigma as other performance-enhancing drugs like steroids. Since the league doesn’t inform the public of what actual substance caused a player to fail, it almost protects them and allows them to downplay their violation.
“(Adderall) has no place in an athlete’s body,” Harbaugh said. “Play by the rules and you always want to be above reproach, especially when you’re good because you don’t want people to come back and say, ‘They’re winning because they’re cheating.’ That’s always going to be a knee-jerk reaction from people I’ve found in my experience every since I was a little kid.”
Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin is the most recent of Pete Carroll’s players to be suspended for reportedly using Adderall. During a recent interview with ESPN the Magazine, Sherman even acknowledged that it “does seem that way” when asked if his team has a PED problem. Although, Sherman also recently said there are plenty of players around the NFL who use Adderall.
Harbaugh isn’t the only person who notices. Carroll needs to clean up whatever problem it is that his team has having. If he has been trying to do so over the past couple of seasons, his methods clearly aren’t working.
