Transfers - Injectable Talent

[OldSchoolLion]

...just a perspective folks   

There are a number of parallels with our present transfer situation and Performance-Enhancing Drugs (PED's), such as anabolic steroids. Athletes can become very reliant upon PED's , both physically and mentally.  The human body has lots of moving parts, just like a football program.  Inject PED's into your body and they affect the entire endocrine(hormone) system and beyond, sometimes in ways we cannot see or do not notice until later. 

Do we really think "injecting" talent into a high school football program is not having negative impacts on the whole program, both short-term and long-term?  ...harmful impacts that can rear their ugly head in the future?  By the way, I'm talking here about the kids who transfer for one year, not the kid who transfers his freshmen year and then stays for three.

If someone thinks not, I would propose they are in as much a state of denial as athletes taking PED's.  When an athlete takes testosterone derivatives, the endocrine system says "hot dog, I can kick back and relax."  Everything is cool until the injections/pills stop, and then the athlete suffers because his body has "forgotten" what it is supposed to do.  Mentally he starts questioning himself and his abilities when he is "off."  The longer an athlete uses PED's, the worse the rebound effect.

I have concerns that hs football programs becoming overly reliant upon "injected" talent to win at a high level are setting themselves up for a huge "downer" when the winds change due to new regulations and/or shifting loyalties.  Will coaches lose or never develop the skills to mold a team from home-grown talent?  Maybe the home grown talent will not even be there in the future.  I would think a lot of "average" kids at schools like Heritage and Aquinas will give up coming out for football, knowing they will work their butts off for 4 years and likely see few if any plays on the varsity.  

And maybe the "B+" kids will choose to go to other schools where they have a reasonable chance of playing time.  I can see "juiced up" programs losing the interest/loyalty of the kids who have been their bread and butter...the average to slightly above average kids who have made up the bulk of their rosters historically.  Or how about some of our coaches of the future who give up coaching after recognizing the futility of building a program when loyalty of players is a concept of the past.        

I remember a very respected coach once telling his athletes, "You've got to come down sometime, guys."  ...implying, you cannot rely upon PED's forever.  Nobody can fly that high forever.  And those that try often pay dearly down the road.  THEN they find out about all of those impacts that they did not see in years prior.  ...time to pay the piper.  I think these football programs dealing with large numbers of transfers are playing with fire.  Worse than that, I have concerns that the kids are getting addicted to the fame and attention, and are being set up for a big crash when their football career is over and they return to "normal" life....when nobody follows your twitter feed anymore.  

Maybe this all sounds crazy, but I know a lot of people not too long who poopooed the idea of opioids being dangerous.  We can become overly reliant on a lot of things beyond substances.        

 

[DarterBlue2]

At the heart of the problem, I think, is the fact that we have become a society that wants instant results. Thus, building and maintaining a program with the readily available talent is too difficult and takes too long. The same applies to so many other areas of society, from college sports to work to athletics in general. 

Ignored in all of this are the long term effects. Some just choose to not see these effects although it does not require clairvoyance to do so. Others feel that by the time they manifest themselves, they will be long gone, so why worry. 

All of this is symptomatic of a society in decline. If we fail to look deep within and make necessary changes, the future of the USA may be worse than its past or current state. Perhaps I am being too gloomy. I certainly hope this is the case.  

[Proseteye]

A very simple solution is what we used in the military and in the corporate world. Drug testing. The students and parents would have to agree, before the season, to allow Johnny to be tested before the season and randomly tested from then on. Just the threat of initial testing would keep some from even applying for sports. The rest would comply due to the random testing aspect. There is not another way to get rid of PED or other drug use. I have witnessed people on PED's and most of them become extremely aggressive in nature thus threatening those around them. Not a pretty sight.

[BrowardHandicapper]

Makes sense but to my knowledge they do not test for PEDs  in the military and the corporate world (unless it appears to be a potential problem in the workplace).  They used to test HS athletes in Florida  and quickly ran out of funding.  Florida tested for a year and spent over $100,000   to catch ONE user.  Texas spent over $10 million over like 7 years and caught like 40.  $10 million of taxpayer money....

Steroid test are not cheap and a lot of the stuff the kids may be  using today  (HGH) , are undetectable unless you are paying potentially hundreds or even thousands of dollars per test kit.  The don't even know if the NCAA can afford to test for HGH.