Give Ray Lewis A Break, Already!

 Hmmmmmm......methinks I smell a rat. Methinks one or more disenchanted Broncos and Patriots' fans may have had a hand in attempting to distract and torpedo Baltimore Ravens' players by circulating an SI.com- based piece of codswallop alleging Ray Lewis (the iconic Ravens' LB) used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). The SI.com author actually names the source for his rapid comeback as "deer antler spray", alleging Ray relied on it during his recent recovery from a triceps tear.  Of course, Ray has soundly denied any such use in his Media Day appearance, while noting that he's been regularly drug tested over his recent rehab.

In any case, as reported in today's Baltimore Sun, a Johns Hopkins specialist professor noted that even if Ray had used the stuff, his body wouldn't have absorbed the banned component:  IGF-1. Dr. Roberto Salvatori, who runs a lab studying growth hormone deficiency and has been on the Hopkins faculty since 1998, said there is no scientifically accepted way to deliver IGF-1 orally.


“If there were, a lot of people would be happy that they don’t need to get shots anymore,” he said. “It’s just simply not possible for it to come from a spray.”

In other words, using the stuff would be useless anyway! So, for the SI.com author and any enablers it's about like saying Ray got a boost during his rehab from extra-terrestrials who sutured on bionic limbs in place of his organic, human ones. It's daft and silly.

Note: IGF-1 is short for insulin growth factor, and is produced naturally in the body but can also be produced as a result of increased presence of human growth hormone. (One of the performance enhancers used by cyclist Lance Armstrong.) 

Why pick on Ray Lewis and the Ravens? Including, again from  Media Day, asking him about his alleged role in an Atlanta murder 12 years ago? Well, number one, NFL Media Day has never been mistaken for a Scholastic Aptitude competition, or Math Olympiad. The "journalists" that attend Media Day generally have I.Q.s in the lower moron to imebecile range. Hence, their questions will reflect that low baseline, and Ray was quite right to simply dismiss all such banter as not worth dignifying by extended response.

Second, it is clear that there's still an element out there that begrudges the Ravens' playoff success over two of the biggest 'darling' teams in the league: the Denver Broncos with Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady's Patriots. So it makes sense a possible coterie of sour grapes sore heads might like to try and unleash a distractor to take the team's attention off the task of beating the Niners on Sunday. Then, if Baltimore loses Sunday, these imps can indulge in a schadenfreude mass -orgasm.

Best thing for Ray Lewis and the Ravens to do is ignore it, and let their response be on the field of play this Sunday.

As for the real drug using creepazoids, well there was Lance Armstrong- fessing up to Oprah, and then there's San Fran fave Barry Bonds who used steroids for years to build up muscle mass, just so he could overtake the greatest slugger of all time: Henry Aaron. At least the last Hall of Fame vote kept this miscreant Bonds out, as it should in perpetuity. As for the HR record, I still regard all Bonds' homers over 500  as bogus while Aaron retains the actual - real record (755). I mean, Aaron earned it!

If Bonds' sorry ass ever does get into the Hall of Fame one hopes at least a perpetual * will be adjacent to that so-called home run record.