The use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports is a hot topic once again.
Last week, Ravens cornerback Asa Jackson received an eight-game suspension for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances.
On Monday, Major League Baseball sent waves across the sports landscape by suspending 13 players involved with the South Florida anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis of America.
Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco, who has largely become the face of the Ravens, was asked for his take on the performance enhancing drugs Tuesday. And he was strong in his stance against them.
"I'm definitely one of the guys … test me and the guys as many ways as you can to make sure that there is nobody in the league that's on anything," Flacco said. "The last thing that I want to be doing is having my guys, that I'm pretty sure are natural, going against guys that aren't."
The NFL conducts regular urine tests randomly throughout the season. But it has yet to wade into testing players' blood for the use of illegal drugs such as human growth hormone (HGH).
But Flacco would be fine with it.
"The biggest thing for us as players is you don't want your guys to be put in situations where they feel like they have to do that to overcome guys that are doing that," he said.
"It's bad for all sports, and sports as a whole. You want to go out there and you want to play on a level playing field and you want the best to be the best. You don't want that stuff to have any part in that."
The use of banned substances in sports also sends the wrong message to kids in the game.
"I'm sure the way it looks to kids out there, it's not good," Flacco said. "I think everybody's trying to head in the direction to do as much as they can to get that out of sports. I think we just have to continue to grow and monitor."
Jackson explained on Twitter that he was taking medicine prescribed to him for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). He said his paperwork, which would allow him to take the drugs, was not turned in on time.
Even so, Head Coach John Harbaugh came down hard on his second-year cornerback.
"You've got to follow the rules. You don't follow the rules, you get suspended," Harbaugh said. "That's a fair rule. There's really no place for that. He's getting what he deserves."
