Brandon Marshall and NFL players appear to have discovered something Roger Clemens knew years ago: Viagra isn’t just for the bedroom.
Marshall, the Bears’ receiver, caused an uproar Wednesday at his weekly news briefing when he said he’s heard of current NFL players using the erectile dysfunction drug as a performance-enhancer — on the field.
“I know guys, it is such a competitive league, guys try anything just to get that edge,” Marshall said. “I’m fortunate enough to be blessed with size and some smarts to give me my edge.”
In June of 2008, The Daily News reported that Clemens had stashed the clearly marked, diamond-shaped pills in a GNC vitamin bottle in his locker at Yankee Stadium.
The News reported that a burgeoning number of athletes had turned Vitamin V and its over-the-counter substitutes into one of the hottest drugs in locker rooms.
“All my athletes took it,” BALCO founder Victor Conte said at the time, referring to an over-the-counter supplement he claimed mimicked the effects of Viagra. “It’s bigger than creatine. It’s the biggest product in nutritional supplements.”
Among the off-label uses for Viagra, which first went on the market in 1998, it helps build endurance — especially for athletes who compete at high altitudes — delivers oxygen, nutrients and performance-enhancing drugs to muscles more efficiently and counteracts the impotence that can be a side-effect of testosterone injections.
The drug currently is not banned by any of the major sports.
“I’ve heard guys using like Viagra, seriously,” Marshall said Wednesday.
“Because the blood is supposedly thin, some crazy stuff. So, you know, it’s kind of scary with some of these chemicals that are in some of these things so you have to be careful.”
– Staff and wire reports
