Storm Coming?

In case you have forgotten (and Steve Henson of Yahoo Sports hasn't), Doctor Anthony Galea is still in a lot of trouble. Galea is still facing charges in Canada for selling a drug called Actovegin (which is an unapproved drug extracted from calf's blood), and his assistant is facing charges in the U.S. for trying to cross the border with HGH. Galea's official specialty is using a blood spinning technique, in which the blood is literally spun in a centrifuge and re-injected into the injured joint in order to accelerate healing. That sounds somewhat different or cutting edge at first glance but apparently it's not. Despite this apparently rudimentary treatment, it certainly didn't stop a whole lot of athletes and sports figures from travelling north of the border to seek him out. It should also be mentioned that Galea himself has admitted he uses HGH for himself, but never prescribed it to athletes (my B.S. Detector just exploded as soon as I heard Galea say that btw).

When news of Galea's arrest broke, the first "name" patient that emerged was Tiger Woods. As time and the investigation have moved forward, some other superstar names have come to the forefront. Alex Rodriguez, Huston Street, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Delgado either have spoken to or have appointments to meet with the Feds regarding the Galea case. What was said to the Feds is unknown at this point. It may just simply be the athletes confirming that Galea worked on their knees, and they never received HGH or any other Performance Enhancers from Dr. Galea. However, the term Benefit Of The Doubt, does not fly on this blog, especially when it comes to possible Drug Cheating.

That being the case, there are a few things that arouse my curiosity, some of which include why would all these players, specifically New York based players, actively seek out a Canadian Doctor for simple knee treatment? How did they find him? How did the guys referring these players to Galea know how to find him? Apparently Dr. Richard Steadman, the same doctor whose clinic operated on Kobe Bryant's knee in 2003, is among one of the main referral sources for Galea. Still though, it seems a little too random that they would all be so willing to travel to Toronto on a referral for simple knee treatments?

Another curious question that comes up is why indeed are the Feds talking to all of these players with such frequency and urgency? The most obvious case where this type of behavior from the Feds took place was BALCO . As a result of the investigation, and some nice Grand Jury testimony leakage, the biggest Doping In Sports scandal was exposed, of which Major League Baseball-specifically the past decade, has never fully recovered from.

All these little coincidences and reminders beg the overall largest question to be asked which is : Is this the beginning of another storm of drug cheating surrounding Major League Baseball players, Olympians, NFL players, and The Goliath Of Golf? Is this as big, or possibly bigger than the BALCO case, in terms of inter-agency cooperation, public disclosure, and re-examination of the legitimacy of certain sports achievements? Or is this simply a case of a whole lot of smoke but no fire?

The problem is, we might never know. It took a crooked lawyer talking to two reporters in order for BALCO to fully come to light. ESPN certainly won't be devoting anyone to this story full time since they are still in bed with MLB. One thing's for sure though, if this were to be BALCO Part II, Bud Selig might finally understand that there is no "moving on" from the steroid era, unless he really is interested in getting to the bottom of the steroid era. Somehow I don't see that happening either...