Tough one. If NFL was in there I would go with that. Allegedly the Puerto bags were footballers.

I would guess it would be the sports with the most lenient testing protocols. I know awhile back in football and baseball, they would get advanced notice. If you have out of competition testing, that makes it an entirely different animal. I just dont know what each league does these days, unfortunately the stronger the players unions, the more lax the testing...

Given those choices:
Giro - hear about violations
French Open - individual sport
NHL - pain killlers, steroids
NBA - ditto and smoking real dope
Champions League - bunch of money at stake, how closely monitored?

The cynic in me says that the money at stake might keep the catching of people down.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

All of these sports are endurance sports in varying degees. The events go on for a long period.

As an example in terms of duration, last year's Wimbledon quarter finals between Federer and Anderson was 4.14 hrs long and then the semis Anderson had a 6.5 hrs match vs Isner....the got to the finals and was gassed by the time he had to play Djokovic. I am just giving this particular run to highlight how endurance focused tennis generally is and in a 2 week grand slam, its just a survival contest much like the Giro. Same thing with an NBA or NHL playoff run. These things are real survival contests.

....sure there is power, but a lot of endurance. And there is a lot of money at stake

As with most things, follow the money, and all your questions will be answered!

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Ask me how much I love my Kiwami LD Aero Trisuit

well three of the top 5 clubs in the world ranked by franchise value in the $4B club are ManU, FC Barecelona and Real Madrid. The other two are the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees who did not factor into my question since I don't really consider these sports endurance sports:

https://www.azcentral.com/...-rankings/103635148/

So if we follow the money, its Euro Champion's league although NBA has plenty of money floating around there.

yeah, champions league would be my wager for that reason. i mean, they're all jazzed to the gills, but let's say champions league.

there seems to be a reluctance to believe that soccer players are doping, for some reason. everyone wants to believe that obscure nordic skiers or cyclists who are earning a school teacher's wage in luxembourg or estonia are doped up on all the designer gear. but that the footballer on the 8-figure salary with a 9-figure transfer fee is clean. crazy.

with the cash involved in that sport, it's mad to think that they aren't doped.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

There's a name. for that.. "whipping boy". And, yes cycling is the whipping boy for other professional sports IMO.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

in some ways, i think the best and the worst thing cycling has done is air all their dirty laundry in public. i remember having a chat with a doctor once (who was somehow involved in sport at federation level) and he was going on and on about how cycling was absolutely the dirtiest sport and nothing else came close.

it seems to me he was both ignorant and naive, but that cycling seemed dirty to him because cyclists kept being found guilty. but the testing protocols in basketball, baseball, or tennis are laughable, and track used to have a mean habit of just sort of glossing over some positives altogether.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Yeah, I’ve often considered that cycling looks dirtier than every other sport because they are at least trying to curb the doping, and all the positives make the sport look dirty. Meanwhile, all the other sports have their heads in the sand and virtually no testing, so the lack of positives makes them look “clean.” I think heads would be blown if the NFL was really tested...I gotta believe that there is a ridiculous amount of steroid and HGH use going on there. The speed and strength of damn near 300 pound lineman is beyond credulity.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

NBA testing is a joke. Likely recreational drugs along with steroid type drugs for rebuilding all of the wear and tear. Champions league probably everything. Recreational drugs, blood vector doping, steroids, etc. I suspect Champions league is the most doped. NHL is likely the cleanest, but again testing is a joke. Likely pain killers and steroids. Cycling is dirtier than the NHL but I bet is lower octane than what we see in the champions league. EPO micro dosing, blood transfusions and the new frontier of SARMs. All are dirty.

We forgot to include triathlon. Dirty dirty dirty. :) Just like the rest.

And there is a lot of money at stake

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With money comes power. That's ultimately why these leagues can do what they do and test how they test. Most of these "private" run leagues gives as much power to the players as it does the owners. Everything from practice time, league schedules, testing procedures, age requirements, etc etc is debated and approved by both the leagues and the players' unions.

I also laughed when the NBA told FIBA that in order to get NBA stars in the Olympics, NBA players were off limits to "WADA" testing regulations until 6 months before an Olympic Games. Of course FIBA wants Lebron, and Dirk to play and market that so they easily bend the knee.

I dont know the back stories with NHL/olympic hockey, it seems that is going more hostile due to the timing of the games and the interruption that always seems to cause to an NHL season.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

When you say Champions League do you mean football as in Soccer I believe you call it?

Given there hasn't been any high profile cases, there hasn't been a sniff of a rumour, the money/competition involved and staff/players switching from team/national team (high risk of whistleblowing) I'd be willing to bet it's the cleanest of the lot.

I'm of the opinion Boxing and MMA is absolutely riddled due to weak testing.

Don't know enough about the other sports to have an opinion, I think Athletics is probably 2nd to Boxing and MMA.

Rugby is a sport which may fly under the radar a little bit which could well have a problem I'm guessing.

I think cycling is relatively clean at this point, far too much has gone on in the past to risk keep trashing its image even more.

I don't know if it has to do with doping or not, but I'm amazed at two former NFL offensive linemen that I know. They were both centers, and smallish by NFL standards in their playing days. Around 270-280lbs. each. But they had the huge meat-slab arms of that OL guys tend to have, etc. But now they look like accountants. I mean legitimately "slender", maybe 160-170lbs.

On the one hand, I'm glad they both took care of themselves and lost all that weight. But damn, that's a big transformation.

It was the famous OL from Cleveland who played like every snap until his last season when he broke an ankle or arm or something. Joe Thomas I believe. He was the best player on the worst team in like league history.

Within like 6 months of retiring from NFL people were like "who the fuck is this", when he shows up at NFL functions slimmed down to a "normal" buck70 pounds.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I would think NHL is more doped than pro cycling. More money there. The campaign that those guys through from September to June is insane. The playoff run is a continuous meat grinder and when you have all those games that go into overtime and you have the coast to coast travel, that's a lot of wear and tear.

You could very well be correct

Joe Thomas. Never missed a snap until he tore his triceps. Then retired. Browns sucked his entire career then he retires and now they should be good.

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Let food be thy medicine...

I would think NHL is more doped than pro cycling. More money there.

I'm not sure why we keep coming back to this argument, haven't we figured out it isn't about the money by now? How much money is in curling, yet we find dopers there. How much money in AG racing, but over and over, in a myriad of sports, it is commonplace for them to dope. It is about ego first, people "want" to be winners. And after that, if you actually get paid to be a winner, just another reason to dope, if you think you can get away with it, the amount of money is irrelevant,. And in the end, that is the real driver, do you think you can get away with it? that is if you are predisposed to be the kind of person that goes down those roads in the first place. Kind of like putting a grand out on the sidewalk at night, when not many are walking by. How many people will just pick it up and walk away if no one is looking, how many would do something different if there are people around watching?And if that grand were on the other side of a locked window, is it 4 out of 5 that would have taken the sidewalk money unnoticed, that would now just pass it by? so now we have 1 out of the 5 that just doesn't care about consequences, and breaks the window to get the money.. I think doping is a lot like that, so we need more and better testing to deter the majority, and eventually catch the overt folks that will cheat at any cost or justification...

Follow the ego.

I’ve heard former pro athletes in the NFL MLB and NBA say that drug testing should be called an intelligence test. If you fail one you’re not too bright because you know when they’re coming.

Monty, once we get into team sports we're talking about egos of rich team owners and a massive pyramid of money that goes with the winning. You are right, that its ego first, but those guys own team because they get off making money and winning in business. I don't think its really about invidual doping once we're talking about major pro sport teams. More like team instituted "enhacement". If we think Lance and crew were the only team doing it, there is a bridge in Brooklyn for sale too.

The thing is doping doesn't do as much for the stick and ball sports as the endurance sports, e.g. cycling or distance running. The skills aspect outweighs the endurance. The sort of in-between might be NFL.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/