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From a Nerd to the Athletes...
3 Min Read
I'm a sports fan, so I'm all too aware of stories like this. Take it away, Monday's edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Rams linebacker David Vobora was awarded $5.4 million as a result of a suit he filed against a company for supplying a contaminated supplement.
The NFL suspended Vobora for four games in 2009 after testing positive for a banned substance, which was found in the supplement.
U.S. District Court Judge Rodney W. Sippel of the Eastern District of Missouri ruled that Anti-Steroid Program LLC, also known as S.W.A.T.S., intentionally misrepresented the supplement. The judgment includes lost compensation from the four-week suspension and marketing opportunities and $2 million for damage to Vobora's reputation.
"Vindication," Vobora told the Post-Dispatch. "That's the single word I'll continue to use. From the get-go, my lawyers and I were on the same page about that. Compensation was secondary. The number one thing was to right the ship and restore my reputation."
Last month I talked a little bit about product adulteration, so I'm not going to whine about how the industry needs to stand tall and do what's right and all that other united-we-stand stuff. Readers know that. Ditto that there are knuckleheads and bandits and cheaters in the industry and reliable manufacturers producing clean, quality high-quality supplements.
I'm happy that Vobora -- especially since he's far larger than I am -- got his vindication. But you have to be a smart shopper, and I'm not sure he was. "This is a tricky subject because rules are always changing," says Kim Truman, who trains the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, "and the supplements can be manufactured out of country and contain unknown things not known to be in there--for example, different metals."
According to the article, the player called "an NFL hotline set up for players with questions about supplements and consulted supplement experts. Before taking the S.W.A.T.S supplement Ultimate Sports Spray, Vobora studied the company's website, which had endorsements from more than 50 NFL players and coaches."
That's great, but here's my problem: Have you seen the S.W.A.T.S Web site? It's not exactly The New England Journal of Medicine. And, really, how professional is a company whose Web site copy--this is a direct cut-and-paste--reads:
S.W.A.T.S Sports Spray is sparyed into the moutn, where the phospholipid spheres easily penetrate the mucosal layers of the moutn and go directly into the blood stream. It is the spheres that protect the nutrients, allowing an average 97% absorption directly into the blod stream.
OK, but Vobora was still interested, so he talked to "supplement experts." Did he do any of the following:
Talk to a naturopathic doctor about a supplement routine?
Buy the product and get it analyzed? Call an organization or advocacy group like Natural Products Association or the Council for Responsible Nutrition for a nearby lab? (While on the line, see if someone there can answer your questions.)
Read the trade magazines (go back at least a year or two) to see if the company had been in legal hot water? (You'd be amazed how many stories like this don't make it to consumer publications. S.W.A.T.S. happens to have a high profile, and a relatively well-known buyer with a complaint.)
Realize that supplements are not replacements for PEDs? They "supplement" your workout plans. If you want to shave a half-second off your 40-yard time or want to jump higher, then you should probably buy something illegal.
."." ." ." .".dddddddddddd"""dfddffdIt worked out OK. Vobora could his vindication and a hefty settlement, which may come in hand if the NFL cancels its season. But could this have been avoided? What else could Vobora have done?
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