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Does Balco taint 49ers?No investigation into 49ers connections to steroid factory means we'll never know |
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Does Balco taint 49ers?No investigation into 49ers connections to steroid factory means we'll never know |
April 20, 2004 (NHS) -- "Raiders join Bonds, Giambi on list" reads an ESPN.com headline.
That list, of course, is the Balco list.
Victor Conte.
Steroids.
All that is evil in sports right now.
And the athletes who were doping? You've been told it's Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. You also know that jerk, Bill Romanowski, is guilty, too.
But any 49ers? Not a chance, right? Certainly, none would dare suggest the Classiest Team Ever could be involved with Balco!
Apparently that's once again the mentality of our lovable sports media that on one hand is covering the topic with their usual tabloid gusto -- going after Bonds, Giambi and Romanowski as if they were J.Lo, Britney and Paris -- but on the other hand, there's the usual caveat that the media's dirt-digging zeal will only be reserved for anyone not wearing a merlot-and-cheddar jersey.
The fate of any 49ers that could possibly be connected to Balco is forever sealed as innocent in the forum of public opinion. Not thanks to known truth, but thanks to the hush-hush, indirect-at-best mention of the 49ers in any stories and no actual investigation into those connections. And once again, only the NHS is here to ask, why are the known facts connecting the 49ers to Balco dispersed in just a few of the thousands of Balco stories in a manner that obviously dilutes the connections, and why aren't the reasonable inferences from those connections voiced at all? Is it because the 49ers are simply just squeaky clean as far as steroid use is concerned? Or is it, perhaps, that the NFL and the media play favorites, and in this case they've stuck it to the Raiders while purposefully downplaying similar or even stronger 49ers connections to Balco?
First, let's start with the obvious, that Balco was headquartered in Burlingame, California, just south of SFO and literally minutes away from 3ComdleStick Park. (Niner-haters will, of course, remember Burlingame as the same town where Eddie DeBartolo passed his briefcase of bribe money under the table.)
The entire investigation into Balco started with a stakeout of the Bay Area company. Newsweek wrote that Federal Agents "watched famous athletes visit Balco headquarters, possibly to get the steroids" -- and what athletes are more famous in the Bay Area than 49ers? Then when the story first broke in September 2003 after authorities raided the Balco offices, the San Jose Mercury wrote: "Conte is well known for helping athletes, from 49ers and Raiders players ... to Olympic stars and bodybuilders."
An October 2003 report at ESPN.com contained another 49ers connection: "(Renaldo) Nehemiah said he was sent to Balco by the San Francisco 49ers in the early 1980s for testing because he was lethargic and it was thought he had some sort of nutritional deficiency."
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Colorado investigators took a written statement from former-49er Martin Harrison in connection with the Balco-Romanowski relationship. Harrison testified that Romanowski "pushed a speed pill" on him "and provided the pill to other 49ers in 1992 or 1993".
So to recap:
Instead of these facts leading to investigations into any 49ers, the authorities and the media swooped on the Oakland Raiders. The media/NFL bias against the Raiders is well documented, so we need not go into here as far as background is concerned. That played a part, but the Raiders got involved mostly thanks to Romanowski's ties to Balco, who was then still on the Raiders.
The Feds have been peeved at good ol' Romo ever since he beat the rap for illegally distributing prescription drugs in a 1999 case. Now, this isn't a defense of Romo -- no question he's got problems. In fact, Niner-haters knew the truth about Romo's character long ago when the media was busy riding his 49er Bandwagon in the so-called "winning with class" days.
Anyway, investigators observed Romo going into the Bay Area steroid shop, so the net was cast to seek out any other possibly connected players that associated with Romo or who were mentioned in Balco documents seized in the raid. In addition to other athletes from baseball and track, ten NFL players were subpoenaed -- not as targets themselves, but to testify what they knew about Balco:
What is interesting is that three of the ten are former 49ers: Romo, Stubblefield, and Ulmer. Add that to the connections above -- the Bay Area location of Balco, that it was "well known" Conte was working with 49ers, and at least one player, Nehemiah, claimed the 49ers were sending players to Balco since the 1980s -- and it starts becoming very suspicious that no 49ers were included in the subpoenas.
Also interesting is what the NFL did in reaction to these subpoenas. They went back and tested old urine samples they had with a newly-available test for THG, the substance Balco is suspected of distributing. Lo and behold, CBS reported that four Raiders -- Stubblefield, Robbins, "former Denver Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski" and Cooper -- tested positive.
(If you click on the link, you'll notice how it is CBS that uses the phrase "former Bronco" Romanowski. It would seem that if CBS was going to mention any former teams, as if that was relevant at all, it would be the 49ers. After all, half of those that tested positive are former 49ers.)
The Seattle Times posited the common reaction to these positive tests: "The most intriguing fact is that all four of the players are on the Oakland Raiders. With so many testing positive on one team, it raises the question: how widespread is steroid use is in the NFL?"
The answer, of course, is that we will never know, because it's likely that the NFL only tested those 10 players. According to CNNSI.com:
"What the NFL has refused to disclose is whether the pool of previously collected samples that have been tested for THG goes beyond the 10 players who have been subpoenaed ... That begs the question of whether the NFL is searching league-wide for signs of THG usage, or merely testing players who inspire a degree of probable cause? There is reason to believe, according to sources close to the situation, that Balco's clients did not extend across the NFL map, but instead were comprised of a tight circle of players located mostly in the San Francisco bay area -- which would explain the league's concentration in terms of its testing for THG."
But what it DOESN'T explain is the concentration of testing on players from Oakland and lack of concentration on any players from San Francisco who -- last time we checked -- fit into that "tight circle" of the Bay Area.
If the NFL is really using an objective "probable cause" standard to decide who they test, clearly it would warrant testing of 49ers given all the connections. But once again, it looks like we're sitting on the disappointing reality that the NFL is applying a double-standard to the 49ers.
While most of the Bandwagon fans would like to believe the NFL tested 49ers and they came up clean, the more likely case is that the NFL decided not to test any 49ers for fear they wouldn't come up clean. After all, the NFL's biggest nightmare would be to have more than one team come up dirty, leading to that "widespread use" scenario.
Perhaps the best evidence for this theory is that the names of the four Raiders who tested positive were mysteriously "leaked" to the media. "The league's program on testing and information on testing are extremely confidential," former Oakland executive Bruce Allen said, "So any reports out of that, someone's either violating the law or making them up."
Someone at the NFL was willing to risk violating the law to let it be known who tested positive. Why? Nobody asked that question, because the leak hurt the Raiders so the media didn't care. In fact, it was almost as if things were steered by the media to lead to the Raiders being leaked as guilty.
Think about ESPN's headline at the top, "Raiders join Bonds, Giambi on list". The reality was that, as it said in the article itself, "Chiefs wide receiver Johnnie Morton, Patriots linebacker Larry Izzo and Falcons linebacker Artie Ulmer -- who played with the 49ers in 2000 -- also have been called to testify."
So shouldn't the headline have read, "Raiders, Pats, Falcons and ex-49ers join list"?
No, it was as if the media knew what was coming and were more than happy to participate in laying all blame at the feet of evil franchise that Al Davis built. The release of the names of the four Raiders was a blatant "stick it to Al" play by someone in the NFL and by the media that hates the Raiders. A not-at-all subtle reminder that the media plays favorites.
Outing the Raiders was only part of the game; another part was protecting who they love; i.e., any 49ers. Think about it this way: If this was set in any other dual-team market area -- New York, for example -- and the Jets were getting steroids from a company located 10 minutes south of the Meadowlands, and it was "well known" that Giants had worked with the company -- do you really think the NFL could get away with testing only Jets and not Giants? Do you really believe that confidential testing results would have been leaked if the players were 49ers instead of Raiders?
The overall genius of the NFL's "leak", though, was by selling out the Raiders, the NFL was laughably praised for being tough on testing, even though they only tested 10 out of the hundreds of players! The NFL was held up once again as the superior sport in contrast to Major League Baseball, which was waffling on the issue. Apparently, flawed and biased action that creates a scapegoat is better than no action at all.
But before the NFL wraps this one up in such a tidy package, there's that little problem that two of the four players that tested positive -- Romanowski and Stubblefield -- have ties to the 49ers. And as much as we're led to believe that people magically become the pinnacle of class while with the 49ers then revert to beasts once they leave the almighty franchise, it could be reasonable to infer that these guys were doing this while 49ers.
Romanowski's situation is well documented, so let's look at Stubblefield, who we once dubbed "The Prince of the 49er Problem" in that he was so overrated during his 49er days. Stubblefield's inclusion in the Balco scandal, of course, gives an answer to a question no person in the media would dare ask of a 49er:
Considering he was so "best ever" in 1997 as to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award and then fell off to a complete zero once he left for Washington, is it possible that his proximity to the Balco steroid source while in San Francisco was responsible for his success with the 49ers in 1997?
For many people, that exact inference has allowed them to declare Bonds' record 73 home runs as bogus. How come nobody, then, has said Stubblefield's 1997 Best Ever Award is bogus? At this point, Stubblefield is confirmed guilty by his positive test, while Bonds still has yet to test positive for any substance. But for some reason, such an inference of guilt is untouchable for 49ers, but it's fair game for the media to voice with Bonds, Giambi, and anyone else.
Perhaps the most interesting needle in the Balco haystack is the involvement of Renaldo Nehemiah.
That name will, of course, bring a chill to old-school Niner-haters. For the benefit of the rest of you or those with memories too fuzzy to reach back to 1982, Nehemiah -- or "Skeets" as he was called by every sneering, smug 49er fan that had been magically born overnight -- was the world-record holder in high hurdles when he decided to try his hand at professional football. His signing with the 49ers was instantly hailed as "proof" of the genius of Bill Walsh to get a sprinter to play in the NFL.
For the legitimate football fans, it was a disgusting testament to Walsh's
vision of watering down the once-great sport of men and football players to
being a game of wussy pieces fitting a cheesy system. Nehemiah -- or more accurately,
the concept of Nehemiah as "Best Ever Genius" -- was one of the first
issues to be treated to the amazing pro-49er hype that is so commonplace today.
In a sense, he was a pioneer of the 49er Problem.
And, as usual, in the face of this amazing 49er hype was the plain truth: Nehemiah
was an abysmal football player. Ultimately, the diminutive Nehemiah got his
bell rung one too many times and skulked out of football in 1986. But the 49er
Problem involved in his short-lived stint -- as well as how it reflected on
the 49er philosophy -- was permanent.
Today, Nehemiah is an agent representing track and field athletes. But more importantly, Nehemiah was listed as a client at Balco's website according to a December 2003 article in The Dallas Morning News. In January 2004, the SJ Mercury reported Chryste Gaines -- one of Nehemiah's clients -- was not invited to a track meet due to the shroud of the Balco scandal.
Most damning is Nehemiah's own statement that "he was sent to Balco by the San Francisco 49ers in the early 1980s for testing". Number one, this clearly establishes a relationship between the 49ers and Balco. Number two, the date is the precious "Best Ever Glory Days" for the 49ers, the 1980s.
Nehemiah denied he received any supplements, and that was magically enough to make his name vanish from the news as the media is always wide-eyed and trusting when it comes to clearing the name of any 49ers. Of course, more discriminating people might wonder, if the 49ers sent Nehemiah in the 1980s, isn't it reasonable to look into whether they might have sent other players to Balco over the 25 years since? And isn't reasonable to wonder that perhaps Nehemiah is lying, and that he did receive illegal substances while a 49er? After all, people think Bonds is lying, so why believe Nehemiah carte blanc?
Once again, those that should look into such reasonable inferences -- the media and the NFL -- will refuse to touch it, leaving the door open for another asterisk on the 49ers' legacy.
There's also a few random other connections that merit bringing up. For one, it should be noted, contrary to the popular Bandwagon bible that reads only Dallas Cowboys ever do drugs, the 49ers are not virgins to drug use. They've had players suspended for violating the NFL's drug policy. For example, last year, defensive tackle Josh Shaw received a four-game suspension. Notably, in 1999, Travis Jervey was suspended for steroid use.
Balco's subsidiary, SNAC System, Inc., is still alive and well operating in Burlingame touting their "scientific" nutritional products like ZMA (see http://www.snac.com/athletes.htm). You'll note that Terry Kirby, "Running Back for the San Francisco 49ers", is prominently listed among many other more famous NFL players -- much to the NFL's chagrin, no doubt.
Also listed is English sprinter Dwain Chambers, who was recently suspended from all track events for two years due to testing positive for THG allegedly received from Balco. Chambers announced that he wants to try his hand playing professional American football with -- you guessed it -- the 49ers, of all teams. Laughably, the article lists the reasons for Chambers to pick the 49ers as (a) following in the footsteps of Nehemiah and (b) the 49ers are "a team who know the value of explosive speed". Ok, stop laughing -- you have to expect some ignorance of a foreign country when it comes to not understanding the cheesy 49er system.
Balancing that ignorance is this great take: "His choice of club will raise eyebrows, however. It was his decision to train in San Francisco with veteran sprint coach Remi Korchemny that led to his downfall after he was put in touch with the nearby Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative."
In other words, the article hints at perhaps the real reason a banned sprinter would want to join the Niners. Could it be because he knows that the cozy protection of the 49ers is the one place he wouldn't be tested?
A final, more comical mention is the lawsuit between Formulated Sciences, Inc. and the NFL. Formulated Sciences, a "nutritional supplement company", claims the NFL wrongly blacklisted their "signature line of products" endorsed by -- are you ready for this? -- none other than Terrell Owens. Yes, it's hard to believe, but there's yet another possible soap opera in the works involving Owens, the player everyone would most like to see go away. Perhaps Formulated Sciences will be vindicated and get their products removed from the banned substances list -- or perhaps all those years of the Bandwagon drooling over Owens' chiseled physique will be revealed as yet another 49er Facade (if that "best ever" physique was owing to a little somethin'-somethin' on the side.)
There's the facts laid out, we now leave it to you to make your own decision whether (a) the 49ers are being ignored because they are innocent; or (b) the 49ers are thus far only deemed "not guilty by omission" because nobody's investigating them despite plenty of probable cause to do so.
Our take, naturally, is the latter seems to be clearly the case because we believe there is nobody interested in applying equal justice against the 49ers. Of course, the NHS has something of a track record on our side. This was exactly the situation when we were the only ones suggesting the 49ers needed to be investigated for their treatment of the salary cap -- and we all know who turned out to be right in that case. We're not tooting our own horn, it's not "genius", it's simple common sense. The 49ers were obviously fudging contracts then, and they probably have some players that were involved with Balco here. It's as simple as the old saying, "Where there's smoke, there's fire".
But in the 49ers salary cap cheating case, it took a bizarre set of circumstances for the truth to come out (when new owner John York wanted to stick it to his brother-in-law Eddie D. and turned "himself" in). People don't get the gravity that if not for that fluke of in-house fighting, the 49ers' salary cap cheating would have never became public because of the simple fact the NFL would never have investigated for the truth. And they certainly won't in the Balco case. Time and time again we've proven to you their double-standard of treating the 49ers as a preferred and protected franchise.
What about the government? Well, it's right there in their own Colorado report, in the testimony of Martin Harrison that Romanowski pushed pills on 49ers that perhaps he obtained from Balco. Nehemiah admits he went to Balco in the early 1980s. So why no 49ers questioned or subpoenaed? One could suggest that the authorities have a 49er bias -- after all, they once let Jerry Rice slither away when he was caught in a whorehouse.
And the press? Ha. There's no journalism when it comes to the 49ers. For example, when writing in Dallas, Skip Bayless would have slept in a rat-infested hole in order to dig up dirt on any Cowboys' drug use. But now that Bayless is with the San Jose Mercury, where's the investigation? Where are the tough questions? Oh, right -- they're all directed at the Raiders.
This hands-off treatment by the media in turn causes a lack of outrage from the public. After all, if they are purposefully made ignorant, how can the people complain? And it's this lack of public protest in turn that most likely explains the lack of action against 49ers by the government and the NFL. After all, why should they do anything if the fans aren't screaming for something to be done?
It's well known that there are connections between Balco and the 49ers dating back to the 1980s that could taint the 49ers' legacy. But when it comes to the 49ers, "well known" quickly becomes "unknown". Which is exactly the way they want it.
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created: April 20, 2004
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