Ettore Lattanzio and Justin Warden were two of the lucky ones.

They got picked in the late rounds of last month's CFL draft by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. They weren't passed over in favour of three players who failed drug tests at the CFL combine but still got selected.

You have to wonder what is going through the minds of those drug free university football players who were on the bubble but didn't get picked. And what about those who are going into their draft year in 2016? It's a scary thought, no? That's why the CFL is under mounting pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency for a policy that doesn't punish dopers entering its league, other than to put them in its drug program.

Players are doping and getting drafted, which worries Lattanzio, a fullback who played defensive tackle at the University of Ottawa.

“It's frustrating,” Lattanzio said after Thursday's practice. “For me, I think of the kids, because a child who's playing city ball, Pop Warner or whatever looks up to the older individuals and says, 'You know what? They're doing it. Maybe I should do it. They're getting drafted.' Then it just becomes a vicious cycle, right? To stem it you have to start at the top.”

The CFL and CFL Players' Association issued a joint statement late Wednesday indicating they are working on a solution to “further deter the use of physically harmful performance enhancing drugs prior to players becoming professional.”

The problem is CIS dopers get banned for four years, while first-time CFL offenders get put into counselling as part of a rehabilitation process. Of the six CIS players who have been caught taking performance enhancing drugs during the last two years of CFL combines, four were drafted and weren't going back to the CIS anyway. Therefore they received the relatively lighter sentences.

Some say it's no punishment at all, which is why some of Lattanzio's friends and teammates who didn't get drafted are not happy right now.

“They're mad. Oh yeah,” said Lattanzio, who was tested six times during his CIS career. “For us, when we don't see any repercussions, you're allowing young guys to do that. Guys would do it. For sure they would, and I wouldn't blame them.

“... I wouldn't do it just because I couldn't sleep at night. I would know that I didn't do it. It wasn't really me. But there's a lot of guys that would say, 'Screw that. I want to get in.' That's the problem.”

Warden, a Bomber linebacker hopeful, knows the players who were busted this year, and he said “for a fact” some of them weren't taking illegal substances on purpose. That being said, Warden goes out of his way to ensure there is nothing illegal in his supplements.

“They always warn us: Don't buy stuff in the States,” Warden said. “Even me, I buy my stuff in the States, but I check every ingredient. But there's times I'm worried, like what if there's something in there and I don't even know because it was contaminated?

“I try not to get upset at the guys, because I do know some of the guys personally and they're amazing, great guys. So I try not to judge on the situation because I really don't know. I try not to think about it. I know some people get upset about it. Some people want a mutual agreement between the two leagues. With time it'll come.”

Like Lattanzio, Warden can see why some prospects would decide to give themselves an illegal advantage since the punishment doesn't come close to fitting the crime like it does in the CIS.

“I understand a lot of guys, if it's their last year, they might be willing to take that risk knowing that hey, you killed at (the combine) and it doesn't really kill your draft stock,” Warden said.

Warden was less frustrated about the situation than Lattanzio, saying, “I'm not mad or upset, because for some guys it affected their draft stock. There's some guys I know for a fact got affected. Some guys didn't get drafted.”

That's true, but only two of the six who have been pinched in the last two years didn't get drafted. Lattanzio wants his former university brethren to stop doping for all the right reasons.

“Because I just avoid the whole drug situation, I don't know much about it. I just know that you can do it and still get drafted. That's really what I know. And to me, that's just not the right message to send. Not at all.”

kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca

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