KELLER'S TAKE KELLER: Cena preaches zero tolerance for steroids, but his choice of words might be revealing Mar 13, 2008 - 3:32:39 PM

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John Cena preached zero tolerance for steroids and drugs in an interview with Men's Fitness. Once again, when talking about drugs, his focus is on those that are illegal or specifically made for bodybuilding. His quote: "These drugs are illegal, they’re not for any prescription, they’re not for any athlete. So make the penalty if you get caught using an illegal substance arrest and jail time."

My issue is that nobody ever asks him if he considers using testosterone for bodybuilding purposes is okay or not, and whether he does it now or has done it anytime in the last five years. Also, when he speaks out against steroids, does he consider testosterone, the purest form of steroid and coveted among bodybuilders, a steroid, or is he reserving the definition of steroids to be only anabolic steroids that are a derivative of pure testosterone?

It's an important designation because Chris Benoit had a huge stash of testosterone in his house. If those drugs that Benoit was using, while also passing his WWE drug tests, are okay with Cena, I wonder if people would look at his statements of "zero tolerance" a little differently.

Also, I'd like to know if, as his statement above might indicate, he considers having a prescription carte blanch to use anything a quack or mark doctor might authorize? There have been many instances of jock-sniffing doctors befriending celebrity athletes and writing scripts for large amounts of drugs that are prescribed ostensibly for one reason, but used for a side effect having to do with improving performance or appearance.

And how about growth hormone? Another drug that can be prescribed for one purpose legally, but abused for another - or obtained through the black market. I just want to hear Cena go on record saying in the last five years he has not taken any testosterone or HGH. Or, if he has, in what quantities and why. If you're going to speak out on a subject and come across as pure and unforgiving of exceptions, Cena ought to answer the tough questions. He's picking and choosing the subjects he speaks out about. (We've learned from hypocritical politicians recently that words publicly spoken and the way one conducts one's life are often in conflict.)

I don't know what Cena's answer to the above questions would be because nobody asks them. But they're the most important questions out there.

He also said: "The best that baseball can do is pretty much what everybody else is trying to do, really tighten up that policy, because this is an issue that is going to be talked about for so much longer."

I'd like to see Cena step up and speak out in support of a stricter, better, more transparent WWE drug policy. The latest changes to WWE's Wellness Policy render it a virtual "honor system" for Vince McMahon and WWE. There's no absolute teeth to the policy. It doesn't actually force WWE to suspend anyone for all intents and purposes on their first two failures as it explicitly states a suspended talent can actually wrestle a PPV with pay at WWE's discretion, and also keep working TV and house shows. (WWE did not have to pull Hardy from WrestleMania because their policy forces them to; their policy states they have the right to pull him off of shows, or not, it's up to them.) It doesn't even really deny a talent any income because WWE's payment structure is so loose and flexible, someone denied payoffs one month can easily have it made up over the next few. There's no salary caps or flat guaranteed contracts where a loss of a month of pay would actually register at the end of the year.

Then there's the issue of who oversees what WWE does with the test results when they get them. How long do they have to administer punishment? Do they even have to administer punishment?

WWE may be doing everything right, administering the test in a manner even the most skeptical critic of their path to this current policy might be impressed by. If WWE is, they deserve credit for that. But we just don't know given the way it's set up.

A third-party, independent oversight agency would solve many of these issues. Trusting WWE to "do what's right" when their policy, as written, has no teeth until a third failure (if even then) is asking a lot.

INTERVIEW LINK: Men's Fitness

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