THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 5B
NFL
H. Rumph Jr/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb greets the media as he walks into a news conference Wednesday in Philadelphia. McNabb has an abdominal strain that will likely need surgery, but the Eagles' medical staff said the star quarterback could play if he can handle the pain.
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McNabb has hernia
BY DAN GELSTON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA — Donovan McNabb tossed touchdown passes on a broken ankle and played an NFC title game with an agonizing rib injury.
Now McNabb is taking his biggest health risk yet: playing with a severe abdominal strain that likely will need surgery and definitely will leave the five-time Pro Bowl quarterback in discomfort and pain all season.
"Fortunately for me, I haven't got to the point where you just can't go," McNabb said. "Once that happens, then I think the best way of handling this is not being out there. But I don't think that would ever happen."
"We're hoping it's something we'll be able to manage," Burkholder said. "The plan with Donovan is to allow him to participate, continue to rehabilitate him and we're going to take it on a day-by-day, game-by-game situation."
Trainer Rick Burkholder said rest will not fix the problem and McNabb can play if he can handle the pain. McNabb, who practiced Wednesday, does not have to be sidelined now for the sports hernia.
McNabb is expected to start Sunday against Kansas City and is willing to play through his various injuries. McNabb also is playing with soreness in his chest and a shin contusion.
"I'm ready to go." McNabb said Wednesday. "I don't have any concerns right now. ... It's just something you have to deal with and realize some days you'll feel great and some days you won't."
McNabb was tested last week for the sports hernia, but coach Andy Reid called the injury an abdominal strain after the Eagles' win over Oakland. McNabb went to Boston on Tuesday for another opinion and it was confirmed he has a sports hernia.
"His pain may get worse, it may get better, the condition won't." Burkholder said. "It's not like he's going to do a career-ending problem to his abdomen or his groin."
McNabb hoped to delay surgery. Burkholder said it usually takes eight to 12 weeks to recover from that type of surgery.
"If I can avoid it, I definitely will avoid it," McNabb said. "If that's the case that I have to have it, then it will happen."
McNabb didn't know when he first hurt the area. He came into training camp with soreness in his abdomen. He seemed to be fine until the second game
against San Francisco, when the injury was aggravated.
The injury hasn't affected NMcabb's performance too much. Against the 49ers, he matched his career best with five TD passes and threw for 342 yards while playing three quarters.
MLB
Against the Raiders, McNabb rebounded from a slow first half and finished with 365 yards passing, two touchdowns and a career-high 25 passes.
"It's good that I've been in the situation before where I've dealt with pain, I've dealt with soreness, dealt with injuries," McNabb said.
BY HOWARD FENDRICH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Congress demands standard test from all professional athletes
WASHINGTON — The head of the baseball players' union told Congress Wednesday that a new drug-testing agreement could be reached next month — after he heard Hank Aaron and other Hall of Famers call for tougher steroid penalties.
Commissioners and union leaders from the NFL, NBA and NHL also testified at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing about legislation that would standardize steroid testing in U.S. professional sports.
"I particularly single out baseball. And in baseball, I particularly single out the players," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) "because they have negotiated reluctantly, if at all."
Lawmakers looking at steroids in sports have focused on baseball since March 17, when Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, commissioner Bud Selig and Fehr testified before the House Government Reform Committee.
But the focus was squarely on Major League Baseball — and, more precisely, on players' association chief executive Donald Fehr.
Palmeiro emphatically told Congress he never used steroids; he was suspended Aug. 1 after failing a drug test.
"We're at the end of the line," Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) said Wednesday. "How many more Rafael Palmeiros is there going to be?"
Five weeks after that March hearing, Selig proposed going from a 10-day ban to 50 games for a first violation, from 30 days to 100 games for a second, and from 60 days to a lifetime ban for a third.
Fehr this week outlined an
"Don't you understand that this is an issue of such transcendent importance that you should have acted months ago? The patience of this body is at an end."
Sen. John McCain
R-Arizona
approach that would increase the first penalty to 20 games and wouldn't mandate a lifetime ban. He stressed Wednesday the need for case-by-case examination of players who fail drug tests.
"Don't you get it?" McCain asked Fehr. "Don't you get it that this is an issue that's greater than the issue of collective bargaining? Don't you understand that this is an issue of such transcendent importance that you should have acted months ago? The patience of this body ... is at an end."
Pressed to say when there will be a new steroids agreement, Fehr said: "Can I give you a precise date? No. Do I expect to know within the reasonably near future whether that will be done? Yes. Would I expect it to be by the end of the World Series? I would certainly hope so."
The World Series is scheduled to begin Oct. 22 and end no later than Oct. 30. Asked whether that's a workable deadline, Selig said, "I don't see that we have a choice."
Selig received more criticism in past congressional appearances. But now he's advised by former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and has received praise for proposing changes to baseball's drug policy.
Yesterday, he brought along former stars Aaron, Ryne Sandberg, Phil Niekro, Robin Rob
erts and Lou Brock.
McCain invited them to speak, and all backed Selig.
"I want to applaud the commissioner, and I also just want to make sure that whatever we do, we make sure that we clean up baseball," said Aaron, whose lifetime record of 755 homers is being approached by San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds.
Asked by McCain what should be done about records tainted by steroid use, Aaron said: "That's going to be left up to the commissioner and the rules committee. They would probably have to go back and look at some of those things that happened."
Later, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., made a not-so-voile reference to Bonds: "As far as Hank Aaron is concerned, if a certain player breaks his home run record, it's not a question of an asterisk. ... There probably ought to be an 'RX' next to it."
The Senate is considering two bills that call for a two-year suspension for a first positive drug test and a lifetime ban for a second.
McCain sponsored the Clean Sports Act. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) a member of baseball's Hall of Fame, sponsored the Professional Sports and Integrity Act. There are three similar House measures.
McCain and Bunning said they'd prefer not to legislate but warned that Congress is prepared to.
NBA, NFL and NHL officials raised some complaints about the bills, saying a "one size fits all" proposal isn't fair; U.S. law couldn't be applied to Canadian teams; and the two-year ban for a first offense is too harsh.
"For whatever reason, you just can't get it done, and you can't get your act together," Bunning said. "I and millions of fans think that's pathetic."
AT THE TOP OF THE HILL
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