Doping in American football

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The use of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs in American football is officially prohibited by virtually every sanctioning body.

The National Football League (NFL) began to test players for steroid use during the 1987 season, and started to issue suspensions to players during the 1989 season.^[1] The NFL has issued as many as six random drug tests to players, with each player receiving at least one drug test per season.^[2] One notable incident occurred in 1992, when defensive end Lyle Alzado died from brain cancer, which was attributed to the use of anabolic steroids;^[3] however, Alzado's doctors stated that anabolic steroids did not contribute to his death.^[4]

The use of performance-enhancing drugs has also been found in other levels of football, including college level, and high school.^[5] The most recent figures from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football drug tests (see NCAA drug testing) show that one percent of all NCAA football players failed drug tests taken at bowl games, and three percent have admitted to using steroids overall.^[5] In the NCAA, players are subject to random testing with 48 hours notice, and are also randomly tested throughout the annual bowl games.^[5] The NCAA will usually take approximately 20 percent of the players on a football team to test on a specific day.^[5]

Anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs are also used throughout high school football. Steroid use at this level of play doubled from 1991 to 2003, with results of a survey showing that about 6 percent of players out of the 15,000 surveyed had admitted to using some type of anabolic steroid or performance-enhancing drug at one point in their playing time.^[6] Other data shows that only 4 percent of high schools have some form of drug testing program in place for their football teams.^[6]