Okay seriously, all kidding aside.
The difference between being a great player and being average in professional sports is small indeed. In baseball one extra hit a game, be it a gaper, a bloop single, or a dying quail, is the difference between being one of the greatest hitters to play the game or being, at best, simply average.
In basketball being able to sink a three-pointer or pull down a rebound when the heat’s on is the difference between playing or sitting on the bench. Do it often enough and you move into elite status.
In the greatest team sport the differences become even more miniscule; 1/10 of a second and you’re fast not slow, ½ a step and you’re in position not out, 2 inches of reach and you catch a football not barely miss it, 15 pounds more muscle and you push people around instead of being pushed, 3 more inches of vertical leaping ability and you’re an athlete not just average.
Yet it seems the common thread every great competitor (in any sport, business, or the political arena for that matter) has had in common; be they blessed with superior athletic attributes or not, has been their ability to focus on the task at hand. Whether it’s their extraordinary off season training, their prolific understanding of a seven hundred (or more) page playbook, their excellent comprehension of film study, the intensity and proficiency in which they practice, or just their innate ability to see and assimilate faster at game speed. This extraordinary ability to focus can turn an average player into a very good one and a very good player into a great one.
And the monetary benefit you can receive for each level is staggering. Be an average football player and you can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars, be a very good player and earn millions, be a great player and earn tens of millions or more.
Enter Adderall, the wonder drug that allows you to feel “more directed, less distracted by rogue thoughts, less day-dreamy,” as stated by a journalist who, after consulting many doctors, decided to try Adderall (nonprescription) for himself. One out of five college students ADMITS to using the drug and not having ADHD, add the stress of being a student athlete trying to graduate and one can only wonder how much higher that number can become. It is the “black beauties, crisscross’, bennies, greenies, or diet pills” of the twenty first century and is being abuse the same manner now as those were thirty, forty or even fifty years ago.
Add to this, the environment of athlete entitlement, the “randomness” of the NCAA’s random drug testing, the ability of college programs to run a “Drug Free Sport’s” program, the fact it has a half life of around 12 hours (making it be out of your system in roughly 48 to 72 hours), it’s “urban legendary” effectiveness, the relative ease one can acquire it, the possible endgame reward, and it’s a wonder every student athlete hasn’t either tried or thought about trying Adderall.
So, it surprises me not that the youngest team in the NFL has the most incidences’ of its use or that it’s the PED of choice among NFL players lately, only how few have tested positive so far. A sad testament considering (according to Sando) fifty have tested positive since 2010 assuming they are all Adderall, but does it really matter at this point?
And this year has just begun…