Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman are involved in a new PED scandal:

An Indianapolis anti-aging clinic supplied quarterback Peyton Manning with human growth hormone, a performance-enhancing drug banned by the NFL, a pharmacist who once worked at the clinic asserts in a new special report from Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.

The report, “The Dark Side,” is the result of a months long investigation in which Liam Collins, a British hurdler, went undercover in an attempt to expose the widespread nature of performance-enhancing drugs in global sports. As a cover story, Collins tells medical professionals tied to the trade of performance-enhancing drugs that he is hoping for one last shot at glory at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Manning is just one of many high-profile players the report names and raises questions about.

Taylor Teagarden is actually on camera discussing his drug use. The entire 49 minute report is online at the link.

The first thing that comes to mind is if they Ryans are using the drugs, they aren’t working very well.

Update: Watching the report. If you want to cut the baseball chase, Teagarden comes on at 29:20.

Update: It’s impressive how some of the people supplying drugs sound like con-men. Charlie Sly basically tells the undercover athlete everything he wants to hear, then at the end of the program tells the report everything he said was false. Sly is described as a genius but certainly doesn’t come across as one.

One criticism that has nothing to do with the story, but with presentation. There seems to be a lot of time wasted with beauty shots. Do we really need to see a singer on the streets of Austin to establish that the story returned there, or Eddie Dominguez working with his son in a batting cage? The reporters really had to pad this story out to make it fit in the time slot. Maybe they could have spent a minute confirming that Sly was actually in Green Bay for a long time period, supplying the Packers.

I think the upshot is that Teagarden will be suspended, as he admitted he used steroids. It’s also clear that there is a network of people who are willing to point athletes to suppliers of these drugs. We’ll see where further investigation leads.