Recently there have been several drug problems among professional athletes. The minor story includes three Mizzou Tiger football players; Dorial Green-Beckem, Torey Boozer, and Levi Copelin. Green was rated number one overall recruit through much fanfare. He scored his first touchdown last month after an eighty yard pass. Just a few days after the game, Green, Boozer, and Copelin were arrested by Mizzou campus police for possession of marijuana. The police report states the players were parked outside Memorial Stadium in a Lincoln Navigator, when the officer approached the vehicle, where he instantly smelled marijuana. The three players were suspended from the Vanderbilt game the following Saturday and were subject to a maximum fine of $250, thanks to Columbia’s ordinance that was passed in 2005. If the players become repeat offenders they may have to suffer more severe punishment. The players weren’t even supposed to be arrested, according to the ordinance, just cited.
The other controversy that has been sparked is by Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner. Armstrong has been accused countless times of doping in order to win the Tour de France, but recently, the United States Anti-Doping Agency has stepped in.
Lance has apparently taken part in, “the most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”, according to the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
“Lance played the role of the Godfather, definitely. He wanted to be the cycling don,” Jeremy Whittle, Times Cycling Correspondent, stated in an interview with BBC.
Team-mates, assistants, and friends have all spoken out against Armstrong and his doping.
“We used to have a man on a motorbike stationed nearby – Motorman. He would have the dope. Lance paid him $20,000 per Tour to do it. Then, as Lance had won the Tour, we would all club together to buy him a Rolex watch,” team-mate Tyler Hamilton said in an interview with the BBC.
Armstrong is now facing the repercussions of his actions. Nike has repealed their contract with him, the USADA has banned him from the Tour de France, and repealed his seven Tour de France titles.
