Issa/Cummings: Why the delay on HGH testing in NFL?

Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings | USATODAY

In 2011, the NFL and its players' union signed a contract agreeing to test for human growth hormone (HGH) "with the goal of beginning testing by the first week of the 2011 regular season." Today, more than two years later, with the 2013 NFL football season opening tonight, HGH testing has not begun.

Over the last two years, our Committee has worked in a bipartisan manner to encourage the NFL and the players to resolve their differences and fulfill their promise to begin HGH testing.

Some may ask why Congress is spending any time at all on this issue. Don't they have better things to do? We certainly do. And that is why we hoped the NFL and its players would work out this issue between themselves. They have not. We have seen occasional signs of progress, almost always followed by backtracking and finger-pointing.

There are 7.7 million children and 9.8 million teenagers who participate in organized sports in this country, and there are millions more around the world. For them, professional athletes serve as prominent role models.

According to The Partnership at DrugFree.org, nearly one quarter of teens say knowing that some successful athletes use performance enhancing substances would make them more likely to consider using them as well.

Young people are particularly vulnerable to the adverse health effects of HGH use. These health risks are wideranging and potentially fatal, including musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension, and endocrine disorders such as diabetes.

Of course, these problems also affect the professional players who take the field each week. And as many current and former NFL players have attested, when some players abuse banned substances, it forces others to choose between cheating or playing it straight or risk losing their livelihood to athletes who break the rules.

This is why the Olympics have conducted HGH testing since 2004. And it is why Major League Baseball recently put in place the same test. It is time for professional football to ensure that NFL athletes are clean and safe.

Although detractors questioned the science behind the HGH test, we held a hearing last December in which scientific experts definitively settled this question. These scientists, along with NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus and anti-doping advocates, agree that the HGH test is scientifically sound and ready for use in professional football.

Without HGH testing at the professional levels, our youth may come to believe that they must take harmful and illegal short cuts in order to fulfill their athletic dreams.

We remain committed to helping the NFL and the players' union resolve their differences in a constructive way, and we hope they reach an agreement this week.

It is the right thing to do, not only for the players, but for the young men and women whose heroes take the field each week.

Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Elijah Cummings, D.Md., are the chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee respectively.

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