Here is a breaking Super Bowl story, hot off the presses. Much like HFT in the stock market, where market players use lightning quick computers to gain a competitive advantage, professional athletes look for any edge they can find in terms of supplements/drugs. Deer Antler Velvet Extract contains a substance that the NFL has banned, and thus Baltimore Ravens’ linebacker Ray Lewis is now under scrutiny. 

via The Baltimore Sun

In a story that includes the phrase “he asks between squirts of deer antler,” Sports Illustrated brings the fascinating story of two men aggressively marketing a line of health care supplements – hologram stickers, the aforementioned deer antler spray, powders, underwear drenched in liquid (seriously) — to college and pro athletes.

The company’s name explains the concept: S.W.A.T.S., which stands for Sports with Alternatives to Steroids.

At the center of the story is none other than Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who is in New Orleans preparing to play the final game of his NFL career on Sunday. It is not coincidental that this story dropped on the day of Super Bowl Media Day.

Here is a lengthy excerpt, placed here in full because of how fascinating it is:

Hours after he tore his triceps during an Oct. 14 home game against the Cowboys, Ravens All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis and Ross connected on the phone. Again, Ross videotaped the call.

“It’s bottom, near the elbow,” Lewis said of the tear. After asking a few pseudo diagnostic questions, Ross concluded, “All right, well this is going to be simple. . . . How many pain chips you got around the house?”

“I got plenty of them,” Lewis replied.

Ross prescribed a deluxe program, including holographic stickers on the right elbow; copious quantities of the powder additive; sleeping in front of a beam-ray light programmed with frequencies for tissue regeneration and pain relief; drinking negatively charged water; a 10-per-day regimen of the deer-antler pills that will “rebuild your brain via your small intestines” (and which Lewis said he hadn’t been taking, then swallowed four during the conversation); and spritzes of deer-antler velvet extract (the Ultimate Spray) every two hours.

“Spray on my elbow every two hours?” Lewis asked.

“No,” Ross said, “under your tongue.”

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