By Travis Brine
The juice is loose on the football fields of Ottawa. No, O.J. Simpson hasn’t been spotted dodging tackles at Frank Clair Stadium, but steroid-enhanced university athletes have been.
This fall, an increasing number of Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union athletes have tested positive for steroids, including two from the University of Ottawa.
These positive testings are extremely damaging. They not only hurt the reputation of the CIAU but they also damage the image of “clean” athletes. For these reasons, dope-control testing in the CIAU must be extensive and the penalties should be extreme.
The penalties facing athletes who have tested positive are tough, but they’re not nearly harsh enough.
If an athlete tests positive for steroids today, he is suspended indefinitely. This seems like a fair policy, but unfortunately no sanctions are enforced against the team itself.
Not only should the player be penalized, the team should be punished as well. This way the athlete would not only be putting his own season at risk, he would also be jeopardizing his teammates’ year. This would be a major deterrence to potential steroid use.
Penalties against the use of steroids should be more in alignment with the sanctions against academic ineligibility.
Ironically, a team suffers more if a player cheats off the field than if he cheats on it. If a student cheats on his schooling, the team is forced to forfeit games. If an athlete tests positive for steroids, the team doesn’t forfeit anything.
Along with the CIAU’s penalty structure, the testing policy itself is in need of an overhaul.
Currently, only 350 athletes in the CIAU are randomly tested each year. This number is ridiculously low, yet four football players recently tested positive in a 10-day period. This is proof of the need for more testing in CIAU universities.
The lack of testing prompted Mount Allison to announce plans a few weeks ago to independently test all of its student athletes.
One can only hope other schools follow Mount Allison’s lead. If all student athletes knew they’d be tested, far fewer of them would take the risk of being caught.
The CIAU’s dope-testing is clearly not working. Reform in its policies and sanctions is needed in order to keep the real athletes on the field and keep the “dopey” jocks off of it.