December 15 -- Does Tiger Woods owe his sculpted physique and 300-yard drives to performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs)?
The only Tiger Woods' sightings these days are in these eerie photographs of Woods shilling for products and a golf tourney he didn't attend
With the doctor who treated Woods for his 2008 knee injury the subject of an FBI criminal investigation for allegedly providing PEDs to NFL players and Olympic athletes, one has to wonder if Woods cheated on the course as well as off.
Three weeks ago, such a suggestion would have been way outside the ropes. Today, however, after numerous allegations of Woods’ serial cheating on his wife, it is not even an incredible suspicion.
Cheater? After all, don’t many golfers believe that the way you play golf, a game of supposed integrity, reflects your true character?
No one has ever accused Woods of cheating on the links.
Then again, until three weeks ago, no one ever ratted Woods out for cheating between the sheets or taking prescribtion dope to enhance his sexual performance, either.
And that’s just the truly sad state of affairs into which the greatest golfer in the world has gotten himself, on Day 19, America Held Hostage: The Tiger Woods Scandal.
HGH probe. The FBI suspects Dr. Anthony Galea, a sports medicine specialist, of supplying athletes with PEDs, according to the New York Times and several other reports. The FBI case follows Galea’s October 15 arrest in Toronto by the Canadian police, who discovered human growth hormone (HGH) and Actovegin, a drug made from calf’s blood, in his medical bag at the US-Canada border in September, the Times said.
Galea is under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well, for “smuggling, advertising and selling unapproved drugs” and criminal conspiracy, the Times said.
It makes the blood spin. Top athletes under Galea have reported quick recovery from surgeries due to a blood-spinning method called platelet-rich plasma therapy, the Times noted. Galea has acknowledged prescribing HGH for some patients, but denies treating professional athletes with the substance.
HGH is legal in Canada but approved in the United States for only some specific situations that do not involve accelerating recovery from injury or surgery, the Times stated. Many sports organizations ban HGH, although it is difficult to detect through testing. The World Anti-Doping Agency has not banned Actovegin, the Times reported.
Woods’ agents, International Management Group (IMG) reportedly “alarmed” at their clients’ slow recovery from reconstructive knee surgery in June 2008, referred the golfer to Galea, according to the Times. Galea and Woods have acknowledged that the former treated the latter with the platelet therapy.
Too little, too late? IMG, attempting to quell yet another firestorm of scandal swirling around its major client, pleaded with the Times not to publish the report?
“I would really ask that you guys don’t write this?” Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, reportedly wrote to the Times in an e-mail. “If Tiger is NOT implicated, and won’t be, let’s give the kid a break.”
At this point, that is, unfortunately, a big “if.” It’s also a little late for Steinberg to start closing barn doors.
With his business empire falling apart as fast as his marriage, Woods can only hope this latest news does not relate to him
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