Two Calls For Vijay Singh To Step Away
ESPN.com's Bob Harig asks, "How is it that Singh is even playing?"
He's referring to admitted doping policy violator Vijay Singh, who is in the field this week at Riviera for the Northern Trust Open as some feel his situation becomes a distraction for the tour each week he plays.
Because his status is under review, Singh is permitted to play, although there is a possibility that any official earnings or world ranking points could be rescinded, depending on the outcome of Finchem's investigation.
This much is clear: If Singh took a banned substance, knowingly or not, he has to be penalized by the tour's own rules. Ignorance is not a defense, nor is the argument that deer spray or IGF-1 is ineffective; it has been on the tour's banned substance list since the drug testing program began in 2008. Players were warned in 2011 about deer-antler spray in literature and emails widely circulated.
Doug Ferguson also submits a commentary suggesting that Singh should take a leave of absense until his situation is resolved.
Under the anti-doping policy, the Tour is required to disclose the name, confirm the violation and declare the penalty.
So far, there has been silence.
This is not a call for the Tour to rush to judgment. Singh's case is muddled. Yes, a player who admits to using a banned substance is the same as a player testing positive. But is there evidence that IGF-1 was in the spray that Singh was using? More than one doctor has said it's impossible for IGF-1 to enter the blood system through a spray. And the Tour does not have a blood test, anyway.
Plus, players have the right to appeal, and the policy says a hearing must take place within 45 days.
Singh brought this mess on himself, and now is the time for him to give back to the game that has provided him with so much. Singh could eliminate this distraction by taking a leave of absence until the Tour sorts this out. The sooner the better.
Geoff
**James Corrigan in the Telegraph sees it the other way, responding to much of the criticism in Europe, though this discounts the doping violation language which does not require a positive test. An admission of attempting to take a banned substance is enough.
The Tour will also know by now that minute quantities of IGF-1 may be found in milk and beef and many other products it would not think to outlaw. It will have heard the generally held view of the experts that it is impossible to absorb IGF-1 in the body if it is not injected.
Indeed, it may well prove the case that Singh was actually less ignorant than the authorities.
The lynch mob are loudly baying for Singh’s sporting life. They would presumably be satisfied with the potential scenario of a man being banished from his profession for unknowingly doing nothing wrong?
This absurdity is where hysteria has taken sport and the vigilantes’ demand for action is set to become more shrill with the revelations of widespread doping in Australia. The temptation is to declare that here is a simple case of good against evil. But it is not necessarily black and white. The Singh affair shows it can be a mess of grey.
Reader Comments (21)
What if this deer antler spray does not contain IGF-1? And the tour doesn't finish its investigation till mid April (consistent with Micelli's timeline). If Viay walks away he's lost two months of the season, including the masters - for no reason, other than some people would prefer this went away. And lets keep in mind he's not even remotely the only golfer who has used deer antler spray.
I am sure Tiger, Phil and Rory are having difficulties with their game because Vijay is playing after admitting he may have violated the policy. Guys are struggling to get through rounds I am sure.
This is just wrong. Media discover scandal, Tour uses their process to deal with it, media does not like lack of transparency, report issue is distraction. Horse hockey!!
Similar to the regular use of a athlete will not talk to us to "clarify" a situation, so these "rumors" will not go away, if "they" would just talk to us ( the media), we could clear this up. Woeful journalism.
The media will hype the distraction to try to make it an issue. All the while the real "issue" is the lack of transparency which is certainly debatable.
Media members are wrong to use this type of leverage. I understand it happens but it's really just blackmail by negative reporting. The poison pen so to speak.
Frankly, I don't think Anything should happen until the Tour knows all the facts and they are certainly murky.
If vijay is suspended for useing a banned substance that have proven to not be a PED or not effective method to deliver a PED, that's an injustice to the game and Vijay.
That's my rant
For the same reason that Ray Lewis played in the Super Bowl after being tied to this stuff. Even if the tour immediately handed down a verdict (like those in the media), there is still an appeals process.
I did not realize that Vijay was so unpopular in the media before this incident, but the claws have really come out.
It would appear that he has really poor judgement!
The media can only post on what they know. They're not scientists. Scientists have given their opinion, and it seems deer spray is right up there with turip juice as as a PED. The ineffectuality of it has been reported, if not widely.
There has long been an anti-Vijay bias in the media. He hasn't helped this.
But this is nonsense. Others used it without penalty. It was never tested to see if it had any effect. It was banned anyway.
That's like banning a woman from posting photos of her face in case she happens to be naked from the neck down. Or banning pictures of cats from Facebook, just in case some memebers are into shagging cats. Or (more likely) banning you from posting pictures of your children on the internet because we know that pedophiles exist and might get excited about the photos.
Can we stop living in a nanny state where everyone who owns a pool has to put a fence around it in case some random neighbour kid runs into your yard and drowns?
Do we need warnings like "Don't use this hair dryer in the shower"? Or can we just assume that a company whose name is based on the words "Without Steroids" would be selling products that are safe for professional athletes to use?
Doug Barron was screwed over. Don't let it happen again.
Let's get the guys who are really cheating. I guarantee none of them have recently given interviews extolling the virtues of what they're taking.