Australian Rules Football Players Want Their Drug Use Kept Private

by Kyle Smith, Doberman On The Diamond

Apparently, journalists in both America and Australia have no problem receiving stolen documents in order to report on drug use among athletes.

There are differences, however. Unlike the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who received grand jury testimony about Barry Bonds, the Aussie's paid for their information, and it wasn't about steroids, it was about rolling and gettin' blunted.

And players in the Australian Rules Football League are pretty pissed about it.

Brett Burton, vice-president of the AFL Players Association, said yesterday players will boycott the Seven Network for the rest of the season unless they receive an apology from the broadcaster ... Burton said players were "disgusted" with Seven's actions in broadcasting a story about illicit drugs use and a Melbourne football club.

So what's the big deal? Apparently, the issue isn't embarrassing information about drug use, it's all about privacy, according to Burton. Hear that? PRIVACY, not drug use.

"We think it's very wrong, not only for footballers, but for anyone to buy private medical documents between a doctor and his patient is ethically and morally wrong."

The problem also has to do with the AFL's drug testing policy, which makes MLB's look like the gold standard.

Under the AFL's three-strikes drugs policy, players testing positive to illicit drugs are not named until a third positive, and then they are referred to the AFL tribunal.

The good news in all of this? At least Aussie fans know their athletes are might be on an equal playing field. Performance-enhancing drugs most certainly were not the problem (at least not in this case - With Malice has informed me that, indeed, Aussie Rules Footballers have problems with performance-enhancers).

Players tested positive more often to hard drugs such as amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy, rather than cannabis, which was by far the most popular drug used by players in the previous two years.

So, what can American sports fans learn from all of this? Two things. 1) Aussie journalists have questionable ethics, and B) Australian Rules Football players would be fun to party with.