Naval Academy Admits to Delay in Drug Tests
Nov 18, 2006
BALTIMORE - U.S. Naval Academy officials waited more than two months to give urine tests to five football players who admitted early last year to using steroids, a disclosure prompting lawmakers to call for a congressional probe into the matter, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Experts told The Baltimore Sun the delay acknowledged by academy officials on Friday would have allowed any trace of the banned drug to disappear.
"I think it's very important that we know who made the decision to test these young folks two months after we had good cause for suspecting illegal drug use," Rep. Elijah Cummings told the newspaper.
Cummings, D-Md., is on the academy's Board of Visitors, a civilian oversight panel.
"I want to know who made the decision, why that decision was made, and I think that whatever answer that is provided should be one that every single member of the board should be very much interested in knowing," Cummings said.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., also called for a probe of the academy's handling of steroid use.
"The Naval Academy and its students occupy a unique place as American role models, and as such they must adhere to the highest possible standards," Waxman said.
Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the academy superintendent, and Col. David Fuquea, who handled internal disciplinary proceedings for the players and is now the assistant athletic director, declined to comment through a spokesman. The players also declined to comment.
The academy's acknowledgment follows statements that officials allowed the five team members to compete in the 2005 season because the tests had "cleared" them. Two other players, who had tested positive for androstenediol in random tests administered by the NCAA, had been barred from the team that season, according to the association's rules.
The academy learned of the two positive NCAA tests Feb. 15, 2005. Nine days later, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service launched an official probe. The probe uncovered that five additional athletes were fingered as other users of "andro." The seven midshipmen, whose names have not been released, were tested by the school on April 27, 2005, the academy said Friday.
The delay in testing would have been more than enough time to prevent any steroid from being detected by a urine test, said Dr. Gary Wadler, an anti-doping expert and medical professor at New York University, and Charles Yesalis, a professor of health policy and sports science at Pennsylvania State University.
Both said andro would leave the human body within days. When taken, the drug combines with naturally occurring substances in the body to produce an unnaturally high level of testosterone. That can give users a competitive edge by building muscle mass, reducing body fat and speeding recovery from injuries.
Waxman, the incoming chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating professional athletes' steroid use for the past few years, urged the academy to "conduct a thorough investigation and get to the bottom of this."
Navy football coach Paul Johnson said Tuesday that once he was notified of the positive tests, he met with players and told them to throw away their banned supplements.
After inquiries from The Sun on Tuesday, he and Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk said they were unaware that the five players had admitted using the steroid. They also said they didn't know when the drug test was administered.
In a written statement, the academy said Fuquea determined the players had not "knowingly possessed or used the substance" after androstenediol was made illegal by Congress on Jan. 22, 2005.
Though the NCAA had banned andro before the 2004 season, the players had purchased the substance online before Jan. 22, and several admitted to taking it after that time. Two military law experts said it would be difficult to charge the players with knowing use based on the change in legality and on the difficulty in proving that the players were aware of the change in the law.
All seven were "found guilty of failure to use good judgment for unknowingly using a substance that was banned by the NCAA and all received appropriate punishment," the statement said.
The players were restricted to their dorms for several weeks, a punishment normally used for minor conduct offenses.
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