Performance-enhancing drugs have dominated the news in the world of sports, greatly affecting the Olympics and Major League Baseball.
Over the summer, similar news also had an effect on the ASU football team as one of its own -- junior linebacker Matt Fawley -- was likely suspended for the season after a positive test. However, drug testing is nothing new to the football team, or any other Sun Devil athlete.
For the Sun Devils, drug testing has become a part of life -- if not regularly then periodically -- just the same as a course final or a rivalry game.
At the end of the spring semester, following spring football, the NCAA paid a visit to Tempe and gathered a group of Sun Devils for a drug test. Fawley happened to be one of the randomly selected athletes that were tested.
Junior linebacker Jamar Williams said the NCAA could test players up to twice a year. Williams, beginning his third year as a Sun Devil, added they have only come to ASU twice since he has been here. Typically, 20 to 30 players are rounded up and tested by a team of doctors.
Senior strong safety Riccardo Stewart said being tested for drugs was not something he looked forward to, but not something to dread.
"You just go in there and pee; it's just a hassle," Stewart said. "You know you're not doing drugs, but you got to do it. I'd rather for me to get picked than anybody else. I know I'm not doing any drugs. And for the most part, I don't think anybody is taking any performance-enhancing drugs.
"I'm not worried, and I don't think anybody else is worried about the NCAA coming in."
Stewart, who said he has been tested by the NCAA only once, during his freshman season, said the worst part about being tested is that players have to get up early in the morning to do it.
"Right now our lives are so scripted; we have everything planned," he said. "You wake up, lift, school, eat, practice, reading, sleep, homework. It's like a rotation, so when something throws you off, it's something you don't want to do."
In addition to the NCAA, Williams and Stewart said that student athletes are also tested more frequently by ASU. Typically the school tests random athletes up to five times a year.
"Sometimes they pick the same guys five times in a row. Sometimes you don't get called at all," Williams said.
Williams added that Fawley told him he had tested positive in the early summer. Williams was not aware whether Fawley knew the substance he had tested positive for was illegal or not.
"It wasn't like this in early college football," Williams said. "Nowadays, there are so many things you can't take, so many things that they don't want you to get that upper edge with. It's hard -- some people don't even know the list of drugs that you can't take. You just have to realize you can't take supplements."
While the testing may be an inconvenience, Stewart said it was necessary.
"You want to weed out the guys that are cheating and keep the guys who are not cheating in the game," he said. "I don't want anyone to have an unfair advantage over me. If someone works harder than me, that's one thing, but don't cheat.
"When you hear about these baseball players and Olympic athletes, its amazing when you see the people who do it. They're your heroes and you're like, 'wow, that's somebody who cheated.' No matter how you look at it, cheated."
Reach the reporter at Christopher.Drexel@asu.edu.
