The New York Giants will be without the services of wide receiver Golden Tate this Sunday thanks to a suspension linked to off-label prescribing. Here’s why the case seemed not only fishy to me but completely nonsensical. It highlights the pharmaceutical nature of sport and so, as the NFL’s 2019-2020 season gets under way Thursday night, I’m writing about it.
Full disclosure: I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan. But I empathize with Giants fans.
The guy who was considered a major piece of the Giants’ receiver corps for this Sunday’s opening-day match against division foe Dallas is going to be sidelined for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
The four-game suspension was handed down on July 27. Tate then scheduled an appeal for Aug. 6 and was counting on the facts of his case to convince the league otherwise. That appeal failed.
The former Eagle, who shipped up the NJ Turnpike to play in Metlife Stadium thanks to a March free-agent signing, is probably chomping at the bit to prove that he’s worth every penny of his $37.5 million salary, and to help fill the void left by Odell Beckham Jr.’s departure to the Cleveland Browns.
But Tate should have known better, and his situation raises some fresh questions. Here are five reasons why I think Tate’s excuse was a cover-up.
1. The claim itself doesn’t add up.
Tate says that he and his wife were just trying to get pregnant. During the offseason, the couple saw a specialist for fertility planning and Tate said the doctor prescribed him a medication which, he discovered days later, was on the NFL’s list of banned substances.
That substance turned out to be clomiphene, an ovulatory stimulant approved for treating infertility in women that’s been shown to affect estrogen levels. Clomid, reportedly, can lead to an increase in testosterone and sperm count for males.
However, as the FDA notes in the approved label for Clomid, whose active ingredient is clomiphene, “There are no adequate or well-controlled studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of Clomid in the treatment of male infertility.”
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency adds, “Clomiphene is not FDA-approved for use by men for any condition. … However, it may be prescribed off-label, meaning that a doctor may prescribe a medication for a use that is not indicated on the FDA’s approved packaging insert or label.”
Thus, unless Tate has a medical condition we’re not aware of, there’s no reason he should have been on this drug. And unless there’s been a serious medical advance of which neither the FDA nor the ADA have been apprised, men don’t appear to be the ones who are typically medicated in fertility cases, at least not with this drug.
2. The timing is unrealistic.
Once he realized in late April that he was in a gray area with regard to the league’s policy on banned substances, Tate says he reported it to the Giants and to the NFL before his test came back positive.
He’s certainly not the first athlete to get caught and cop to just being confused. Yet he and his wife had their second child, Golden Tate IV, in late February 2019. Can a woman desiring pregnancy restart the treatment process that quickly?
And, given all of the baths, late-night diaper changes and milk-pumping for little Golden, would Tate or his wife have really been that intent on having another child so soon?
3. Why didn’t he try to secure a TUE?
A therapeutic use exemption (TUE) enables an athlete to use an otherwise prohibited substance or method, provided it’s strictly for therapeutic purposes.
If an athlete has an illness or condition requiring him or her to take certain medications, the TUE is the usual route—and may even be granted if the medication needed is listed as a prohibited substance, as is the case with clomifine [sic], which appears on the World Anti-doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances.
These exemptions can be applied for confidentially through the athletes’ national anti-doping agency or international federation and could enable the athlete to use the drug without breaking any PED laws. Exemptions are only granted if four conditions are met, one of which is that no unfair advantage is conferred.
Whether TUEs are being exploited is a matter of debate. Cyclists have used claims of low testosterone to get a doctor to prescribe them T shots. Inhalers are a common sight at swim meets; do all those athletes have asthma?
Vetting the legitimacy of any TUE claim would have been a matter for the anti-doping agency to sort out and, had Tate secured the necessary paperwork, he could have spared himself the NFL’s wrath. Although Clomid’s off-label use for fertility may have preempted a TUE, nevertheless, the apparent omission is curious.
4. The NFL’s PED policy is no secret.
As Tate noted in an Aug. 13 statement, “Ultimately, the NFL stood by their no tolerance policy, which I hope one day to have a part in reforming.”
That policy, which basically makes players responsible for what they put in their bodies, is well-known. (Philly fans don’t have to go back too far to find instances of Eagles players who have run up against it.)
Were Tate a rookie, we’d be willing to cut him some slack. But he’s a 10-year veteran of the league, and one who’s been critical of other players for past substance-related issues.
For a ten-year league veteran to not have realized this treatment regimen might run afoul of the rules—whether he was really taking it for the claimed use or not—strains credulity.
5. The alternative motives seem more plausible.
So, what’s the real reason? Was Tate doping, or just daft? Maybe both.
He took a female fertility drug that’s not FDA-approved for men, then claimed that the doctor who prescribed him the medication told him it did not include a banned substance and that he or she had prescribed it to other players.
Instead, he may have wanted to generate sympathy in advance of the test becoming public, and who’s going to be upset with somebody who wants to increase the size of his family? But if he was trying to save face for a PED misstep, Tate should have tried a more believable claim.
His fertility excuse does not pass muster, especially when weighed against the real possibility that he was using PEDs for an edge. Athletes have used clomiphene to restart their bodies’ natural testosterone after coming off a steroid cycle, a regimen which Steroid.com refers to as post-cycle therapy (PCT).
In fact, Clomid has been compared to female fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which was linked to baseball slugger Manny Ramirez. In 2009 Major League Baseball suspended Ramirez, then an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, for 50 games because of documented hCG use.
I’m tempted to not write this off but to chalk it up as just another case of an athlete who’s been caught for using PEDs and is trying to save face.
If so, Tate should have spared us all the specious excuse. As a popular segment of head-scratching plays on sports network ESPN used to be called, “C’mon Man!”
This column will appear every Thursday. Got an issue or story tip related to healthcare marketing? Contact me at [email protected].
