patriots
Sports: Hot stove (Old Colony Memorial)
While many New Englanders are suffering from a case of the dog days of summer, the world of professional sports is not. n After seeing the New England Patriots' 2004 World Championship rings, I can't blame Richard Seymour for showing up to Robert Kraft's house to get his ring.
newenglandpatriots patriots newengland
NFL Notebook: Madden continues announcer's odyssey
newenglandpatriots patriots newengland
DE Richard Seymour misses second day of New England Patriots minicamp (Slam! Sports)
FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) - Richard Seymour missed his second straight day of the New England Patriots' mandatory minicamp Friday, but teammates didn't seem overly concerned.
NFL Notebook: NBC inks Madden to 6-year contract
Crennel shows Browns Super Bowl ring
... carat ring that he and other members of the New England Patriots received Sunday night in a ceremony at the Brookline ...
Crennel shows Browns Super Bowl ring
... carat ring that he and other members of the New England Patriots received Sunday night in a ceremony at the Brookline ...
Patriots get Super Bowl rings
Champion New England Patriots get Super Bowl rings at owner?s home BROOKLINE, Mass....
Coaching defections leave Pats searching
FOXBORO, Mass. -- Four months after the Super Bowl and six weeks before training camp, it's not entirely clear who will call plays for the New England Patriots this season. Coach Bill Belichick doesn't appear worried. '
Coaching defections leave Pats searching
FOXBORO, Mass. -- Four months after the Super Bowl and six weeks before training camp, it's not entirely clear who will call plays for the New England Patriots this season. Coach Bill Belichick doesn't appear worried. '
Sports Blog at SportingGoodsDepot :: Patriots All Pro Seymour A No-show For Minicamp
The New England Patriots said little about All Pro defensive end Richard Seymour's absence from the team's mandatory minicamp other than to say they consider the lineman's absence 'unexcused.' Because New England head coach Bill Belichick has a policy of not discussing contract negotiations many aspects of Seymour's absence went unanswered. Though reporters speculated and Seymour hinted that he
Coaching defections leave Pats searching
FOXBORO, Mass. -- Four months after the Super Bowl and six weeks before training camp, it's not entirely clear who will call plays for the New England Patriots this season. Coach Bill Belichick doesn't appear worried. '
New England Sports Hub :: New England Patriots HUB: Bruschi sits this one o...
New England Patriots HUB: Bruschi sits this one out LB has eye on future
New England Patriots Go Digital with Avid Solutions (Broadcast Newsroom)
Avid Technology, Inc. today announced that Kraft Sports Productions, the production company for the New England Patriots and other Kraft family businesses, has deployed an Avid digital postproduction workflow to produce weekly televised football programming.
Saturday
SNL is a horrible repeat with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Beck...
And Even More on Drugs
Via Delaware Online
NASCAR insists that performance-enhancing drugs are not a part of its race tracks or garage areas, even as steroid allegations continue to swirl around many other sports.
Drivers such as four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon say there is no drug that will make them go faster, and pit crew members say steroids will make them work slower.
Not so fast, says Dr. Charles Yesalis, a Penn State health policy professor and sports drug expert.
“I’ve been watching NASCAR since the late 1980s and early ‘90s,” Yesalis said. “Back then, a good pit stop was 18 seconds. Now it is down to 13 seconds. If you look at any type of athletic activity, that percent of total drop is huge.
“I understand that pit crews now practice pit stops and that is good, and quite clearly specialization has stepped in. But in today’s world, when you look at the size of these guys, to ignore the specter of drugs, NASCAR’s just doing what every high school in America is doing—‘It can’t be happening here.’ ”
NASCAR has not yet been approached by The House Government Reform Committee, which is reviewing the performance-enhancing drug policies of several sports organizations such as Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
Yesalis wonders if it would be that big of a deal if it did come out that NASCAR pit crew
members were using performance-enhancing drugs.
“NASCAR has the same ace in the hole that Major League Baseball, the NFL and NBA have—its customers do not care,” he said. “People initially say, ‘I’d really be upset if those guys are using steroids or human growth hormones,’ and then you ask them, ‘Would you quit going to the track or watching on TV?’ No.
“You had better believe that NASCAR is going to ignore this. There’s money behind every sport. The NFL is king of all of them. And this is the standard way to treat this that I have observed. The interesting thing about NASCAR is its tradition with its race teams bending the rules in order to gain an edge.”
“I think it would be a shame if the pit crew members were using steroids. That would put NASCAR right in the same boat with pro football and baseball,” said Kim Yates of Dover. “I don’t think they are using them, because they are more interested in speed than bulk. But if they were, I’d definitely look at the sport a different way. I don’t think I’d watch the races.”
Leon Porter of Dover said steroids would have no affect on how he looks at NASCAR.
“My view on NASCAR has already changed. All they are worried about is marketing and making a profit—not racing,” Porter said. “Steroi
ds? NASCAR had better worry more about racing than drugs. Did you see the Indianapolis 500 last [Sunday]? Now that was a race.”
Four drivers tested positive
NASCAR’s drug testing policy calls for testing of anyone at any time, based on reasonable suspicion. Steroids, along with other illegal substances, would fall under that broad scope.
Only four drivers—Brian Rose in the Craftsman Truck Series, Shane Hmiel and Kevin Grubb in the Busch Series, and Sammy Potashnick in the Winston West Series—are known to have tested positive for banned substances during the past three years. It was announced that Hmiel had been suspended for a second positive test Thursday.
Driver Jeff Burton said there is plenty more that NASCAR can do.
“The thing that I enjoy a great deal about our sport is that on a lot of issues, we’re in front of them in comparison to other sport competitors,” Burton said. “We don’t have a players’ union that stands in the way of our sanctioning body doing the right thing. It’s one of the things that I enjoy about our sport.
“Having said that, I wish we would get further ahead of this than we are. I’d rather look back five years from now and say we were trying maybe a little too hard, rather than saying we weren’t trying hard enough.”
Tim Goad, who played football for the New England Patriots (1988-94), Cleveland Browns (‘95) and Ravens (‘96-97), said he does not believe steroids are an issue in NASCAR.
Goad, who has served as a jackman for several teams, is t
he pit crew coach for Ken Schrader’s Nextel Cup team.
“I don’t think there are steroids in NASCAR, and I’d be surprised if there ever was,” Goad said. “Steroids alone don’t make you stronger. They just let you work out longer and help your recovery time so you can work out more often.
“When you look around the garage, there are a limited number of places where you would even think that could help. Maybe the jackman.
“Jacking a car is more technique than it is strength. Hey, 20 years ago, strength was the big thing. These days, it’s almost all technique. A lot of muscle build-up not only wouldn’t help you, it would probably slow you down and, when it did that, become a hindrance.”
But if there is an area where steroids could have an impact on NASCAR, it is in the pits. Races often are won or lost in the pits, where seconds equal many positions gained or lost on the track.
Pit crew members use a 35-pound jack to lift a 3,400-pound car. They change four tires that weigh as much as 65 pounds each, and put 22 gallons of fuel into the car in about 13 seconds.
They will do that as much as eight times during the MBNA RacePoints 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday.
That is why Chad Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, agrees with Yesalis and does not think it is a stretch that steroids may be used by pit crew members.
“When you’re using steroids, if I remember back to my wrestling and football days back in high school, what that would do is just kind of increase your burst of energy and your short-term impact,” he said. “Obviously, that’s what you’re doing in a 12-second pit stop.”
Still, Knaus said he doesn’t believe st
eroids are a widespread problem in NASCAR.
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s any of that out there,” he said. “If there is, then I will be surprised.”
Pit crews practice more
Goad said teams practice pit stops regularly and have found different techniques to lower their times. Plus, technology has improved in the form of lighter jacks and faster air guns.
“Tire changes and carriers are all about speed,” Goad said. “If they come up with something that makes you move faster, you might want to get out the test tubes. But until then, I don’t think steroids are a problem here.”
As for the drivers, Gordon laughs at the notion any of them are taking steroids.
“I just think when you’re in a race car and you’re traveling the speeds you’re traveling, your mind doesn’t have a choice but to concentrate,” Gordon said. “There might be some natural herbs that guys could take to help them with that … I’ve certainly never had to do that or thought about doing that.
“It’s more about keeping your body hydrated. We’re not trying to get really strong. You don’t need to be physically really strong.”
Burton agreed with Gordon, but wished testing was more stringent.
“I think it’s our duty and our responsibility to show the youth that’s watching this sport and the adults that are watching this sport that this is a drug-free environment because what we do—we’re operating vehicles at a high rate of speed,” Burton said.
“I want us to have the best drug policy in all sports, the same way we do a lot of things better than all the other sports, so I wish we were a little more proactive in it.”
Dr. Yesalis would be surprised to see that happen.
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