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American Morning

Steroids Scandal

Aired December 05, 2003 - 09:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: He's the highest profile athlete to testify so far in the investigation of a lab that supplied nutritional supplements to a host of sports superstars. Baseball slugger Barry Bonds appeared yesterday before a grand jury in San Francisco. Now Bonds, who denies using steroids, is not a target of the investigation, but his personal trainer is. The grand jury is looking to a California lab called Balco to determine whether tax or drug laws have been broken.
Joining us to talk about all this, Roy Johnson, assistant managing editor of "Sports Illustrated."

Roy, good morning.

ROY JOHNSON, ASST. MANAGING EDITOR, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning. How are you?

COOPER: Good. Let's talk about this. Barry Bonds testified for some five hours yesterday in front of this grand jury. As we said, he is not the focus of the investigation, Balco is. What do we know about Balco, and what's the investigation about?

JOHNSON: What we know about Balco is that it is a Bay area laboratory that deals in nutritional supplements. What the feds have been looking at it for for a long time are tax evasions and possible money laundering and trafficking in these controlled substances. What has happened is this web has started catching some very high profile people into it, including not just Barry Bonds, but Jason Giambi. Yesterday, Benito Santiago also testified before the grand jury.

And also what has come together is the discovery of this designer steroid, THG, which is something that, you know, the doping agencies had not been able to identify before.

COOPER: People didn't even know about this.

JOHNSON: Didn't even know about it. It was one of those steroids that was genetically altered so it couldn't be discovered. Once it fell into the laps of the doping agencies and some people have accused Balco of being involved with THG. Then later on, we discover that five to seven percent of baseball players tested positive for steroids recently, which implemented a new set of rules, which are pretty weak from baseball, as a matter of fact. But all this is really coming together, and it's really a story that's not going to go away.

COOPER: Want to talk about the baseball testing in just a little bit. Balco, though, Barry Bonds has been public in sort of embracing not only his personal trainer before all this, but also Victor Conte, who runs Balco. I believe they were in an ad together a couple months ago in a fitness magazine. But he is not the focus of the investigation?

JOHNSON: No, he went there at least once a month to get his blood checked, to deal in these nutritional supplements. We're still at the very tip of discovering what is going on with Balco and what these supplements are. I'm not one of those people who says just because Barry Bonds gained 40 pounds in the last 17 years that it's an indictment, an indication that he's using steroids. I don't know about you, but 17 years out of college, you're going to gain some weight. But we're really just beginning to see that, and it will be a lot of questions asked.

COOPER: Very briefly about baseball, how soon is testing of the Major Leagues going to go on?

JOHNSON: Testing will start March 2nd, which is one of the bad things. The players know exactly when it's going to start testing, so it gives them several months to clean themselves up. Every player will be tested over the course of the season twice, and now we'll really see what baseball is all about and if they're really serious about it. The fact they told them when it's going to get started leaves me thinking they may not be as serious as they'd like us to think they are.

COOPER: And you're saying the warnings and punishments are not very strong?

JOHNSON: Well, the punishments are not very strong at all. You have to test ppositive four times before you are penalized, at least by sitting out 25 percent of the season. In the NFL, after the first infraction, you miss four games, which is 25 percent of the season.

COOPER: All right, Roy johnson, "Sports Illustrated." Thanks, Roy.

JOHNSON: All right, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 5, 2003 - 09:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: He's the highest profile athlete to testify so far in the investigation of a lab that supplied nutritional supplements to a host of sports superstars. Baseball slugger Barry Bonds appeared yesterday before a grand jury in San Francisco. Now Bonds, who denies using steroids, is not a target of the investigation, but his personal trainer is. The grand jury is looking to a California lab called Balco to determine whether tax or drug laws have been broken.
Joining us to talk about all this, Roy Johnson, assistant managing editor of "Sports Illustrated."

Roy, good morning.

ROY JOHNSON, ASST. MANAGING EDITOR, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Good morning. How are you?

COOPER: Good. Let's talk about this. Barry Bonds testified for some five hours yesterday in front of this grand jury. As we said, he is not the focus of the investigation, Balco is. What do we know about Balco, and what's the investigation about?

JOHNSON: What we know about Balco is that it is a Bay area laboratory that deals in nutritional supplements. What the feds have been looking at it for for a long time are tax evasions and possible money laundering and trafficking in these controlled substances. What has happened is this web has started catching some very high profile people into it, including not just Barry Bonds, but Jason Giambi. Yesterday, Benito Santiago also testified before the grand jury.

And also what has come together is the discovery of this designer steroid, THG, which is something that, you know, the doping agencies had not been able to identify before.

COOPER: People didn't even know about this.

JOHNSON: Didn't even know about it. It was one of those steroids that was genetically altered so it couldn't be discovered. Once it fell into the laps of the doping agencies and some people have accused Balco of being involved with THG. Then later on, we discover that five to seven percent of baseball players tested positive for steroids recently, which implemented a new set of rules, which are pretty weak from baseball, as a matter of fact. But all this is really coming together, and it's really a story that's not going to go away.

COOPER: Want to talk about the baseball testing in just a little bit. Balco, though, Barry Bonds has been public in sort of embracing not only his personal trainer before all this, but also Victor Conte, who runs Balco. I believe they were in an ad together a couple months ago in a fitness magazine. But he is not the focus of the investigation?

JOHNSON: No, he went there at least once a month to get his blood checked, to deal in these nutritional supplements. We're still at the very tip of discovering what is going on with Balco and what these supplements are. I'm not one of those people who says just because Barry Bonds gained 40 pounds in the last 17 years that it's an indictment, an indication that he's using steroids. I don't know about you, but 17 years out of college, you're going to gain some weight. But we're really just beginning to see that, and it will be a lot of questions asked.

COOPER: Very briefly about baseball, how soon is testing of the Major Leagues going to go on?

JOHNSON: Testing will start March 2nd, which is one of the bad things. The players know exactly when it's going to start testing, so it gives them several months to clean themselves up. Every player will be tested over the course of the season twice, and now we'll really see what baseball is all about and if they're really serious about it. The fact they told them when it's going to get started leaves me thinking they may not be as serious as they'd like us to think they are.

COOPER: And you're saying the warnings and punishments are not very strong?

JOHNSON: Well, the punishments are not very strong at all. You have to test ppositive four times before you are penalized, at least by sitting out 25 percent of the season. In the NFL, after the first infraction, you miss four games, which is 25 percent of the season.

COOPER: All right, Roy johnson, "Sports Illustrated." Thanks, Roy.

JOHNSON: All right, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com