The clouds are bruised, the air is charged, and the Synovial joint in your right knee that you busted in a high school football game aches like hell; in the immortal words of some unnamed rancher that I saw in a Western once, "a storm's a-brewin'". We haven't talked about it yet here, and that probably has more to do with a lack of information than interest, but the siezing of a Dr. Anthony Galea file folder marked "NFL" has Class 5 implications. We could see another BALCO.
Galea has long been under suspicion of illegal activities directly relating to PEDs. In December of 2009 The Mounties announced that they were teaming up with the FBI to investigate the good Dr.'s activities, specifically his alleged usage of Actovegin and hGH in treating CFL and NFL athletes. Just last month Galea was formally accused of both supplying the hormones, and smuggling them into the US of A. Galea has already been linked to Redskin's WR Santana (ay!) Moss: in fact, investigators believe that Galea was actually on his way to D.C. to administer his contraband concoctions to Moss when he was taken into custody.
Brendan Fraser and his band of miscreants seized a plethora of drugs, hormones, and files while raiding Dr. Girlfriend's office, all of which (except Actovegin [which is illegal]) one would find in many a surgeon's office. They also found a notebook, detailing his treatment of patients on American soil (also illegal), but I don't really care about that.
This brings us to the Forbidden File Folder of Mystery. When BALCO's files were seized in 2003, a score of athletes were implicated (including Shane Mosley, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, and Romocop), and their reputations were tarnished, some beyond repair.
I'll admit that I'm nervous as to whose name is in the folder. They won't be in legal trouble, but they will definitely be in League-al trouble. According to reports, Galea never visited Seattle, and to my knowledge none of our players have ever used him, but we will still feel affects. For instance, a breakdown of Galea's planner shows that on August 9th he was in San Francisco, and that he treated athlete "G".
Let's see, whose name in San Francisco starts with the letter "G"? I'll give you a hint. Need another?
We can't know for certain whether or not Galea's actions in these cities are linked to the utilization of PEDs, for all we know his actions could have been purely ludic in nature. But I for one am praying that Seattle is safe, and will be marking this as one of the most important sports stories of the year.
Go Hawks.