The weird thing is, although I think that it is one of the worst excuses, when I hear Lewis saying he didn't know he was taking it, I totally believe him. Call it a stereotype or whatever, but I really think that he could be stupid enough as a professional athlete not to check what he was putting into his body. Look, there are athletes in every sport who obsess over their diets, counting every carb and every calorie. You would think it goes without saying that at the very least, they would check their supplements to make sure there's nothing illegal or banned in any of them.
But Rashard? With him, I'm inclined to think that he's one of those people who wouldn't.
Does he look like he's a guy who'd check his supplements? So somehow, I can't really hate on the guy. He's missing 10 games and $1.6 million out of the $18 million he was going to make next year. Boo hoo.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel has a good take this issue:
"If the muscular Dwight Howard tested positive for a steroid-like substance, you could understand it. Same with the stocky Jameer Nelson or the sculpted Mickael Pietrus.
But Lewis?
Really?
Seriously?
With his spindly arms and legs, he looks as if he should have tested positive for birdseed...
I have an even better piece of advice for Lewis.
If you're an NBA power forward and you're going to get busted for performance-enhancing drugs, you absolutely have to average more than 5.7 rebounds a game."
Anyway, it presents an interesting contrast to MMA heavyweight Josh Barnett, who was set to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1st before he tested positive for steroids. Now it was pretty obvious to us fans that he got caught red handed. He's tested positive twice before and actually lost a UFC title because of it.
A few days later, his camp put out a statement that said, "Mr. Barnett vehemently denies intentionally ingesting any banned substances in preparation for the August 1st fight and he is looking forward to presenting his case to the California State Athletic Commission."
Funny how he didn't denying ingesting it, only "intentionally ingesting." The problem is, fighters are generally surrounded by even more people who look after their diet, training regimen, and supplements. Combined with the fact that he's tested positive in the past (not to mention has fought many times in Japan where they either don't test or don't care), there is absolutely no way he would have taken any banned substance on accident. Apparently Barnett and his people thought that we'd be too stupid to realize any of this. Fortunately, they got some major egg on their face when the results from his B sample came out shortly after, also testing positive for the same substance.
While Lewis is only losing a small portion of his pay (not even 10% out of 18 mil), Barnett lost his show and potential win money, which is everything for fighters, probably some sponsorships, and his reputation. Also, Affliction ended up scrapping the entire event and then folded as a fight promotion, choosing to make peace with the UFC and sponsor their fighters once again.
In case athletes haven't noticed, steroids and PEDs is a big deal. Why there is anyone out there in any sport that has testing who isn't religiously checking every label of anything that they eat or use and having someone else double check for them is beyond me. If I was an athlete I'd read the ingredients of a can of tuna before I ate that. You know, if I ate that kind of stuff.
Hopefully we're coming to a point when everyone will laugh when an athlete says he unknowingly ingested an illegal substance. We're already at a place in professional sports where that idea should already sound silly, but who knows. I've learned never to underestimate stupid people.
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