Tweet
Taylor Hooton Foundation Regrets Supporting Failed Texas High School Steroid Testing Program
What single man has delivered the most harm to anabolic steroid educational efforts aimed at teenagers over the past decade? Mark McGwire? Barry Bonds? Alex Rodriguez? Lance Armstrong? Hardly. That distinction belongs to Don Hooton, the founder of the Taylor Hooton Foundation (THF)
This may come as a surprise to many people but Hooton has done far more harm than good when it comes steroid education. After the death of his son Taylor, Hooton had the good will and support of the entire country behind him and the THF. He had an amazing amount of power and clout to steer the country in the direction of evidence-based steroid education programs. But he squandered it all and allowed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to slip through his hands.
Rather than align himself with the university-based researchers and scientists who were experts on the matter, Hooton chose to align himself with the anti-doping crusaders and moralists fighting drugs in sports. These guys were more interested in enforcing a quasi-religious moral code in sports and punishing its transgressors. Steroid testing was their bread and butter. It was how they made their money. They could use Hooton to push for more steroid testing further into professional sports as well as the holy grail of steroid testing profits – high schools.
Hooton also turned his back on the researchers in favor of the powerful and wealthy men in professional sports e.g. executives, owners, commissioners and not least of all, the celebrity players. These guys needed a convenient public relations ploy to help them rehabilitate their image after the “steroid era” in baseball tarnished the sport. They needed Hooton to help them move past this sullied period and prove that they were all about saving the children.
Hooton spent years as a spokesperson for increased steroid testing not only in professional sports but in high school sports as well. It was Hooton's Congressional testimony and his aggressive lobbying in support of high school steroid testing that ushered in the passage of “Taylor's Law”. Taylor's Law mandated the creation of a statewide high school anabolic steroid testing program in the State of Texas in 2007.
It was obvious from even the earliest stages of the high school testing program that it was failing to live up to expectations. Almost a decade later and after spending $10 million on this colossal failure, state legislatures unanimously voted to pull the plug on the embarrassing experiment. Texas legislators once wanted it to be a “model” for all 50 states to follow. Instead, it became a cautionary tale against legislators and a voting public who allowed themselves to be swayed by the emotional testimony of someone who had no business making such recommendations.
Eight years later, Don Hooton has finally admitted that he screwed up royally with his support of high school steroid testing.
“Up until our Texas experience I was a major proponent of testing,” Hooton said recently. “I made one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made, driving this Texas testing program. ... We can’t test our way out of this problem."
Now Hooton wants a do-over. He hopes the State will spend taypayer funds on steroid educational efforts for high school students instead. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed and unlikely to ever return. Hooton's clout is gone. Legislators and a sympathetic public may have been willing to support $10 million based on Hooton's emotional story of a teenage son allegedly lost to steroids the first time around. But it is unlikely they will trust him again when it comes to any more money for his pet projects. There is no do-over.
That $10 million is gone for good. We can only imagine the difference it would have made in the lives of the many teenage steroid users if it had been earmarked for scientifically-supported, evidence-based steroid education programs.
It's not as if Don Hooton didn't know about the existence of such programs. Dr. Linn Goldberg, M.D., the head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, was the most outspoken opponent of Texas' high school testing program in 2007. As aggressively as Hooton lobbied in favor of the program, Goldberg lobbied against the program.
Goldberg spoke out against the program to newspaper reporters, he wrote letters warning legislators of the pitfalls of the program and he personally told Hooton himself that the program was doomed for failure. Unfortunately, Hooton was a true believer who thought he knew best and disregarded Goldberg's expertise.
“I told him that a long time ago,” Goldberg said. “It’s unproven at just about every level. It rarely reduces drug use.”
Unlike Hooton, who convinced himself that he was a steroid expert based on his experience with his son, Goldberg was an internationally-recognized anabolic steroid medical expert whose research team had created one of the only evidence-based steroid education programs for teens that was scientifically proven to make a difference.
Unsurprisingly, Goldberg was absolutely correct in his assessment of the Texas program back when he advised Hooton against it as Hooton lobbied for it. In an interview with the New York Times in 2008, Goldberg made some incredibly prescient statements regarding the shortcomings of the program.
“Here’s what I see is the big problem: If you put in drug testing and you think it works, then you’re not going to put anything else in. You’re not going to care about anything else because you probably feel, ‘We’ve taken care of it.’”
And thanks to Hooton, that's exactly what happened. As far as the general public was concerned, there is no serious steroid problem in high schools and the programs failure to catch many steroid users is proof. Texas squandered $10 million on steroid testing without any money left to fund truly effective steroid education programs (like the OHSU's ATLAS and ATHENA steroid education programs). And they're not about to spend any more money.
Finally, Hooton recognizes his mistake and regrets it. Now he wants to solely focus on steroid education. But a lot of good that does now.
What single man has delivered the most harm to anabolic steroid educational efforts aimed at teenagers over the past decade? Mark McGwire? Barry Bonds? Alex Rodriguez? Lance Armstrong? Hardly. That distinction belongs to Don Hooton, the founder of the Taylor Hooton Foundation (THF)
This may come as a surprise to many people but Hooton has done far more harm than good when it comes steroid education. After the death of his son Taylor, Hooton had the good will and support of the entire country behind him and the THF. He had an amazing amount of power and clout to steer the country in the direction of evidence-based steroid education programs. But he squandered it all and allowed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to slip through his hands.
Rather than align himself with the university-based researchers and scientists who were experts on the matter, Hooton chose to align himself with the anti-doping crusaders and moralists fighting drugs in sports. These guys were more interested in enforcing a quasi-religious moral code in sports and punishing its transgressors. Steroid testing was their bread and butter. It was how they made their money. They could use Hooton to push for more steroid testing further into professional sports as well as the holy grail of steroid testing profits – high schools.
Hooton also turned his back on the researchers in favor of the powerful and wealthy men in professional sports e.g. executives, owners, commissioners and not least of all, the celebrity players. These guys needed a convenient public relations ploy to help them rehabilitate their image after the “steroid era” in baseball tarnished the sport. They needed Hooton to help them move past this sullied period and prove that they were all about saving the children.
Hooton spent years as a spokesperson for increased steroid testing not only in professional sports but in high school sports as well. It was Hooton's Congressional testimony and his aggressive lobbying in support of high school steroid testing that ushered in the passage of “Taylor's Law”. Taylor's Law mandated the creation of a statewide high school anabolic steroid testing program in the State of Texas in 2007.
It was obvious from even the earliest stages of the high school testing program that it was failing to live up to expectations. Almost a decade later and after spending $10 million on this colossal failure, state legislatures unanimously voted to pull the plug on the embarrassing experiment. Texas legislators once wanted it to be a “model” for all 50 states to follow. Instead, it became a cautionary tale against legislators and a voting public who allowed themselves to be swayed by the emotional testimony of someone who had no business making such recommendations.
Eight years later, Don Hooton has finally admitted that he screwed up royally with his support of high school steroid testing.
“Up until our Texas experience I was a major proponent of testing,” Hooton said recently. “I made one of the biggest mistakes we’ve made, driving this Texas testing program. ... We can’t test our way out of this problem."
Now Hooton wants a do-over. He hopes the State will spend taypayer funds on steroid educational efforts for high school students instead. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed and unlikely to ever return. Hooton's clout is gone. Legislators and a sympathetic public may have been willing to support $10 million based on Hooton's emotional story of a teenage son allegedly lost to steroids the first time around. But it is unlikely they will trust him again when it comes to any more money for his pet projects. There is no do-over.
That $10 million is gone for good. We can only imagine the difference it would have made in the lives of the many teenage steroid users if it had been earmarked for scientifically-supported, evidence-based steroid education programs.
It's not as if Don Hooton didn't know about the existence of such programs. Dr. Linn Goldberg, M.D., the head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, was the most outspoken opponent of Texas' high school testing program in 2007. As aggressively as Hooton lobbied in favor of the program, Goldberg lobbied against the program.
Goldberg spoke out against the program to newspaper reporters, he wrote letters warning legislators of the pitfalls of the program and he personally told Hooton himself that the program was doomed for failure. Unfortunately, Hooton was a true believer who thought he knew best and disregarded Goldberg's expertise.
“I told him that a long time ago,” Goldberg said. “It’s unproven at just about every level. It rarely reduces drug use.”
Unlike Hooton, who convinced himself that he was a steroid expert based on his experience with his son, Goldberg was an internationally-recognized anabolic steroid medical expert whose research team had created one of the only evidence-based steroid education programs for teens that was scientifically proven to make a difference.
Unsurprisingly, Goldberg was absolutely correct in his assessment of the Texas program back when he advised Hooton against it as Hooton lobbied for it. In an interview with the New York Times in 2008, Goldberg made some incredibly prescient statements regarding the shortcomings of the program.
“Here’s what I see is the big problem: If you put in drug testing and you think it works, then you’re not going to put anything else in. You’re not going to care about anything else because you probably feel, ‘We’ve taken care of it.’”
And thanks to Hooton, that's exactly what happened. As far as the general public was concerned, there is no serious steroid problem in high schools and the programs failure to catch many steroid users is proof. Texas squandered $10 million on steroid testing without any money left to fund truly effective steroid education programs (like the OHSU's ATLAS and ATHENA steroid education programs). And they're not about to spend any more money.
Finally, Hooton recognizes his mistake and regrets it. Now he wants to solely focus on steroid education. But a lot of good that does now.
Comment