Pro sports - and their fans and reporters - definitely have a different take on 'supplements'
Mike Cloud (NE Patriots) was caught and suspended for 4 games, When he came back earlier in the month and scored 2 TD's in his first game, no one really cared about his suspension locally.

What images does the  following conjure up - of the "unlucky" athlete and his milkshake.     A victim of circumstances for the NFL player;
It was recently announced that Cloud is filing a lawsuit against the manufacturer.
And, call me a skeptic, but I don't believe there were just 16 positives out of 8000.  There had to be a few more just among those enjoying a refreshing chocolate shake after a practice.

******
In a 7/25  article by Jay Glazer in Sportsline.com, it was written:

>"The National Football League last year conducted 8,000 drug tests. Sixteen returned with a positive result. That's encouraging to the NFL and NFL Players Association. But >because of the difficulty of policing the booming supplements industry, a few unlucky players who don't deserve to be are caught in the net.

(MY COMMENT - WELL,WHO DESERVES TO BE CAUGHT?)

>Mike Cloud is one of those extremely unlucky few.

>"When I first got the call from the league telling me I had tested positive, I didn't think it was real," Cloud said in his first interview since being suspended by the NFL for testing >positive for steroids. "I couldn't believe something like this was actually happening. I figured there was no possible way it was true."

>Cloud had been waiting for four years for the chance to take his skills to the open market. He started the final two games of the 2002 season for Kansas City in place of injured >Priest Holmes and was expecting a decent chance at a starting job and a lucrative contract with a new team this offseason. But his career path hit a major obstacle when Cloud >was associated with the dreaded "s" word -- steroids, the taboo of all taboos in NFL circles.

>"I went to the local vitamin store, like a GNC or CVS, and bought a basic chocolate protein powder off the shelf," Cloud said. "There were about eight brands lined up in a row, and >you really don't know what makes one different than the others. So I picked one, and three weeks later we have a random drug test. One week later I received a call informing me >that I tested positive for metabolites of Nandrolone, which is an illegal steroid.





Steve Vaitones
Managing Director
USA Track & Field - New England Association
P.O.Box 1905
Brookline MA 02446-0016
Phone: 617 566 7600
Fax: 617 734 6322
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.usatfne.org

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