With the conclusion of the Super Bowl and before the hubbub of free agency and the draft, a certain bit of calm has fallen over the NFL.  At this point, the allegations of Peyton Manning’s use of HGH (and to the lesser extent digging up his old sexual abuse scandal) have been the highlight of a otherwise quiet couple of weeks.   Lest you think that this has absolutely nothing to do with the Packers, keep in mind Clay Matthews was also implicated by Al Jazeera.

While we all make the natural assumption that using HGH is bad, gives an unfair advantage to players who cheat, and overall sullies the profession of being an athlete, is any of that actually true?  Here’s what we actually know about human growth hormone usage in professional sports:

1.     No one knows if it actually works: Not completely surprising given how few professional athletes there are in general, coupled by the smaller number that use HGH (and get caught).  Medical researchers are at this point not sure if HGH would give athletes any competitive advantage on the field.  What we do know is that taking HGH lowers body fat and increases lean muscle mass but with no subsequent increase in muscle strength.  What that really means is that while athletes taking HGH may in fact have bigger muscles, they aren’t able to do anything more with those bigger muscles than they could before taking HGH. 

2.     It might not be that helpful to have more muscle mass: If you actually think about it, very few athletes in the NFL that have body builder physiques.  The NFL game has evolved to favor players who have sudden quickness over total maximum speed and body flexibility to change directions suddenly and absorb impacts.  None of these things require muscles on muscles and as a result there are plenty of talented football players who don’t look like Mr. Universe (see: all NFL players).  Compare that to football players in the 1980’s “dead ball” era who played in a game about winning in the trenches and running the football and you start to see why players like “the incredible bulk” Tony Mandarich (who admitted to using steroids, the precursor to HGH) existed.   

3.     It might help athletes recover faster: There is some evidence that shows HGH may increase the build up of connective tissue, and in particular the Mitchell report from the MLB stated that many baseball players used HGH for the perceived benefit of faster recovery from injuries.  While this may or may not be true (again no one knows), it doesn’t seem to make much of an advantage from a NFL player’s perspective.  First off the most devastating injuries for NFL players are knee injuries (ACL/PCL), broken bones (mostly in the foot) and torn muscles (biceps, shoulders).  Of those, HGH would have very little effect on broken bones (which has nothing to do with connective tissue) or torn ligaments (which basically never heal, which is why athletes usually use graft transplants) but HGH might help with torn muscles. 

4.     The NFL isn’t designed to benefit HGH use compared to other sports: By this I mean NFL rosters are so large that any significant injury is likely to land a player on IR, which effectively shuts the player down for the entire season.  Baseball in particular has the 15 and 60 day DL list but a NFL player does not have the option to return to play after being sent to IR (with the exception of the IR-designated to return tag, which is relatively new and not retroactive).  Add to that the NFL season is shorter than MLB season and it simply might not be possible to heal fast enough, even with HGH, to return to the field for NFL players. 

5.     HGH might actually lower athletic endurance: Interestingly, HGH levels are naturally high in some individuals, namely those suffering from a hormone disorder called acromegaly.  Research has shown that individuals with acromegaly have very low stamina and when their hormone levels are corrected their stamina actually increases.  This paradoxically might mean that athletes who take HGH may actually be hurting themselves on the field by lowering their endurance.   While NFL players don’t need to have fantastic stamina given the constant stoppage of play, I can’t imagine any NFL player would want to have less stamina. 

Overall, let me be the first to say I have zero clue whether or not HGH is a thing in the NFL.  It might be a rampant problem with everyone taking HGH or it might just be the few guys who have been caught.  I have no idea what NFL players presume HGH does for them or what reasons they would want to take HGH for.  All I am saying is that at this point, no one knows if HGH actually gives anyone a competitive advantage on the football field and the NFL is coincidentally designed to not favor HGH use compared to other sports.