The State of Sports Reporting

Overheard on Sportscenter just now (severely paraphrased):

Buster Olney: The last two days, scientists and medical professionals have testified about the lack of evidence for HGH improving performance in athletes.

Steve Phillips: That can't be the case. The proof that HGH improves performance is the fact that athletes use it. If it didn't, then they wouldn't be using it. Also, HGH improves eyesight, so these older guys are able to see the ball better.

Bob Levy: Really this all boils down to the fact that HGH speeds up the healing process. The body has a natural healing process, and athletes shouldn't be doing things that interfere with that.

Join us next week, when we discuss how bleeding cures cancer, because otherwise why would people have done it, and why ice has been banned from MLB locker rooms. Also, we'll learn how orange skittles improve your hearing.

Seriously - we have congress testimony from medical experts, and we here at ESPN are deferring to this pair of BS spewing morons for analysis? Entry 32726 on why mass epistemology is pointless exercise.

For the record, there is no standard, scientific-type evidence that HGH improves performance, strength, or eyesight. The logical fallacy of "they do it therefore it must work" is obvious. And hmmmm, it certainly seems that injecting a bolus of cortisone into one's joints (or reconstructing someone's elbow) also falls in the "interfering with the natural healing process" category. Quick, somebody suspend Curt Schilling!