Drug cheat targets NFL

Dwain Chambers

14 April 2012

Dwain Chambers is preparing to abandon his Olympic dream forever in the hope of becoming the fastest man in American football.

The disgraced British sprinter has already come through secret trials in London and is scheduled to enter a National Football League training camp in Florida on February 23.

The decision to approach the NFL is a clear indication that Chambers is expecting the worst - a two-year suspension from the track - when he comes up for sentencing next month following his positive test for the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).

Such a ban would virtually end the European 100metres champion's career in top-flight athletics at the age of 25, but would be no impediment in itself to an alternative future in gridiron.

Chambers, confirming his interest in a switch to the NFL prior to Sunday's Super Bowl in Houston, said: 'I am determined to give this my full commitment. It's a hard road with an awful lot to learn about the other aspects of the game, but my speed is an asset and I'm pleased with my progress so far.'

So are the NFL coaches and officials who assessed his potential as a wide receiver during work-outs behind closed doors at Crystal Palace. They put Chambers through a comprehensive series of drills to establish speed, agility and hand-eye co-ordination.

Spokesman Dave Tossell said Chambers' speed in the standard NFL 40 yards test would put him 'among the NFL elite'.

American football can offer Chambers an immediate bolthole from his drugs scandal with lucrative possibilities in the long-term. But he would not find himself among the sport's top earners for at least two years.

The big bucks would come if the NFL place him with one of their major league teams here. To be given that chance he will have to stay clean of the steroids which have brought about his downfall on the track.

Yesterday, a top scientist warned that any health risks Chambers may face in the tough world of American football are nothing to the damage he may have inflicted on himself by using THG.

Dr Olivier Rabin, science director of the World Antidoping Agency, told a symposium in Lausanne that the five athletes, including Chambers, and four NFL players with positive results may face a far more damaging punishment.

'Normally any drug administered to humans has been tested extensively on animals for possible toxic effects, possibly to kidneys, liver, brain and blood. I have checked all the published data on trials and there have been none. THG went from test tube to athletes,' he said.

'They were using top athletes as guinea pigs for their experiments. It's completely crazy, Who knows what could happen to them in the future.'

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Drug cheat targets NFL

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