ig Three” shift into a supporting role with the Heat, coming off

Three of the top players in Canadian college football have tested positive for banned substances, a development that comes with doping experts saying Canadas university athletics have become a "wild west" where athletes are gaming the system. The players tested positive during a training camp for the top 37 collegiate players that were hosted earlier this year in Edmonton by the Canadian Football League, TSN has learned. The testing was performed by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, whose officials have informed the players schools about the infractions, according to two senior university officials familiar with the matter. Pierre Lafontaine, chief executive of Canadian Interuniversity Sport, the governing body for university athletics in Canada, confirmed "multiple players" tested positive for banned substances at the March CFL combine. The players names have not been disclosed publicly. Its unclear which schools they attend and what drugs they took. Lafontaine said schools may disclose details about the tests next month. The positive tests mark the latest chapter in a decades-long struggle by schools and sports leagues to contain steroid use by athletes who are looking for an edge. Steroids build muscle strength, add weight, and can help players recover faster from injuries, but also come with potentially life-threatening side effects. Steroid users can develop tumours and suffer other harmful side effects. But as athletes have taken more personal risks, testing has improved. At least 14 Major League Baseball players have been suspended for testing positive for banned substances, and the reputation of cyclist Lance Armstrong is in tatters because of his positive tests. The latest positive tests in Canadian college football come four years after a steroids scandal rocked a major schools football program. In 2010, eight players at the University of Waterloo were suspended for anti-doping rules violations after testing or admitting to using steroids and three years later, a ninth player at the centre of the scandal was sentenced for possession of steroids for the purpose of trafficking, among other charges. Since the Waterloo scandal, 14 other Canadian college football players have tested positive for banned substances, including Concordia University lineman Quinn Smith, who tested positive for an anabolic steroid in March at a combine event in Toronto - days before the Edmonton training camp. "(Steroids in Canadian colleges) have gone under the radar because the attention has been fixed on professional sports and the individual elite-level athletes," Bob Copeland, Waterloos former athletic director, said in an interview. "Theres no question its still a problem, and its tough to say who is doing it. At Waterloo some of the players who admitted using or tested positive were second-string players." Copeland and others say that immediately after the scandal at Waterloo, schools across Canada committed to improve the testing of players in all sports. Yet since then, costs have climbed to $1,000 per test. Public funding for testing has been frozen. Ira Jacobs, dean of the University of Torontos Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and an expert on doping, says the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports is being pressured by the federal government to focus efforts on students who participate in Olympic sports - at the cost of policing college athletes who play hockey and football. "Its a wild west because we have no (effective doping) controls in place and the athletes know," Jacobs told TSN. Paul Melia, president of the CCES, said funding from Sport Canada to the CCES has been fixed at $5.4 million in recent years. Much of that funding goes to pay for 85 doping control officers and for contracts with labs, he said. The CCES pays $1.7 million-a-year alone to two labs in Ontario and Quebec, said Melia, who declined to comment on the positive drug tests at the CFL combine. "We have to monitor 10,000 CIS athletes, 800 Olympic level athletes, 250 alone at the Commonwealth Games (recently in Scotland)," he said. With Sport Canada demanding more frequent testing of Olympic athletes, presumably to prevent embarrassing sports scandals that might tarnish Canadas image at the Olympics and other international competitions, theres less money left to test Canadian university athletes. Its a problem Canadian schools have pledged to address. CIS schools recently agreed to give the CCES money to be used for CIS athlete testing during coming years. While that funding will allow the CCES plans to conduct as many as 200 tests of CIS athletes, that is far below the number of tests conducted on athletes in past years, which makes it easier for athletes to dodge detection. During 2011-12, for instance, the CCES conducted 455 tests of CIS athletes. Melia said the CCES faces challenges in coming months. Anabolic steroids remain the second-most seized drug at the Canada-U.S. border, he said. "We dont know who is being arrested or where the drugs are headed because of Canadas privacy legislation," Melia said, adding that steroids are also the No. 1 imported drug to Quebec. It is similarly difficult for police to make headway on many steroid-related cases. Police officials have said finding steroids is rare because users dont often overdose and end up in a hospital. Police come into contact with steroid traffickers far less often than they do with drug dealers who peddle recreational drugs such as cocaine, said one Toronto-area police official who has worked on drug cases. With costs spiralling up, the CCES has agreed to adopt in 2015 a new drug-code passed by the World Anti-Doping Agency that is certain to further hike costs, Copeland said. Agreeing to that code will force the CCES to invest more money in random testing and developing so-called biological passports for athletes. The passports will establish baseline levels for testosterone and other chemicals and proteins in an athletes blood over a series of tests, so that subsequent test results can be compared. Melia said the CCES is similarly trying to expand intelligence gathering. A doping hotline established last fall has attracted 50 to 100 tips so far, he said. "We are also trying to get stats from schools about how much athletes can bench press or how they do in the 50 metres, so we can compare later results to see if there are big changes," he said. CFL spokesman Jamie Dykstra said the league pays for the testing of prospects at combines but since they athletes are still in university, "they dont fall under our drug policy which was collectively bargained with our players association." Copeland said hes been struck by the fact that second-string players are just as likely users of steroids as A-list players. "I can see why users might justify this in the U.S. for the chance to land a big contract, even though its still a long shot, but these guys in Canada are taking these risks for the chance for an entry-level contract in the CFL," Copeland said. "Thats a $50,000 contract. It doesnt make sense." Wholesale Dodgers Jerseys . Formula One Teams Association secretary general Oliver Weingarten says the organization collapsed over unpaid subscription fees and a failure to strike an agreement for 2014 with all 11 teams. Cheap Dodgers Jerseys . -- Wes Welker is unlikely to suit up for Denvers game Thursday against San Diego after leaving Sundays win over Tennessee with his second concussion in four games. https://www.cheapdodgersonline.com/185h-gary-sheffield-jersey-dodgers.html . You can catch all of the action LIVE on TSN2 at 6pm et/3pm pt. The Heat reached that mark Saturday night when they ruined the Philadelphia 76ers home opener. Dodgers Jerseys 2019 . With the Canadiens leading by one to start the third period, Price turned away 16 shots by the Panthers in the final frame to give Montreal a 2-1 victory over Florida on Monday night. The Panthers (16-21-6) outshot Montreal 16-10 in the final frame, but were repeatedly frustrated by Price, who made 26 saves on the night. Gary Sheffield Jersey .C. -- Cam Newton wasnt flawless on Sunday.Leading up to SportsCentres Year In Review on Christmas Eve, TSN and TSN.ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at LeBron James and the Miami Heat winning their second straight NBA championship. The Decision seems so long ago now. Its now been over three years since LeBron James sat down with Jim Gray to let the world know that he was taking his talents to South Beach, turning his back on his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers and signing with the Miami Heat to form - along with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade - the NBAs most hated triumvirate. Something strange, but compelling, has happened since then and it culminated in the Heats second-straight NBA Championship this past June. It took three years, but LeBron James finally found redemption. Few shed tears when the Heat fell to the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the 2011 NBA Finals. The sense of schadenfreude was palpable as Mark Cubans charges pulled the upset and left the Heat wondering what went wrong. When the team re-emerged in 2012 as Eastern Conference Champions and mowed down the Oklahoma City Thunder to claim the Heats second-ever NBA Title, there was a sense of inevitability. They were built to be the best and they were and there was nothing anyone could say otherwise. But something changed in 2013 and its hard to put a finger on it. The NBAs reigning champions, the leaagues biggest heels in recent memory, underwent a transformation that few saw coming.dddddddddddd Maybe it was the second act of Chris “Birdman” Andersen, the man once banned from the league on drug offences who signed in January and emerged as a catalyst for the club just before their 27-game winning-streak that took them into late March. Maybe it was watching Ray Allen, chartered member of the Boston Celtics “Big Three” shift into a supporting role with the Heat, coming off of the bench to provide key minutes. Maybe it was watching the team battle to a seven-game Eastern Conference finals victory over the upstart Indiana Pacers, the team that will most likely challenge their Eastern Conference crown come this June. If it was none of those, it was certainly Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Down 13 points in the fourth to the San Antonio Spurs and seemingly doomed to their second defeat in the NBA Finals in three seasons, James decided to take control of the narrative on his own, dropping 18 points in the final frame to help send the game into overtime, where the Heat came back for a 103-100 win to even the series for a third time. The Heats Game 7 triumph seemed like an inevitability after that, the aging Spurs deflated and resigned to defeat. In looking human, the Heat found humility. In humility, they found victory. ' ' '