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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Keep battling use of tobacco
I knew I was not alone, yet I often felt like an outsider. I am a former college wrestler, and I’m not addicted to chewing tobacco.
Unlike most of my teammates, my room was not strewn with “spitters” — 20-ounce bottles filled to various degrees with used dips and darkly clouded chew-spit. Tripping a landmine — a poorly sealed bottle in the middle of the living area — was not a concern. And I did not construct a pyramid of dead soldiers — empty chew containers — on my windowsill for all to see, though some of my teammates did.
According to TobaccoFreeU.org, 3.6 percent of the male population, ages 18-24, uses chewing tobacco. Sadly, I wish this percentage held true for my fellow athletes. The most recent NCAA drug-use survey reported that more than 16 percent of the athlete population, spanning both division and gender, uses chewing tobacco. That percentage is doubly troubling considering that it is buoyed largely by male athletes in four sports: baseball, football, ice hockey and wrestling. Athletes in those sports report usage of 42, 29.8, 36.7, and 34.6 percent, respectively.
The astronomical statistics have found their way into the membership. In the past 17 years, the NCAA has made several attempts to reduce tobacco use throughout the athletics community. In 1990, the NCAA banned tobacco use at any championship activity. In 1994, tobacco use was forbidden during practice and competition. And most recently, in 2002, the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee implemented a zero-tolerance policy to give bite to the legislation. The over-arching message: “You spit, you sit.”
These legislative actions have had some success. Since the drug-use survey in 1993, tobacco use across division and gender has been cut nearly in half: down 14 percent (from 30.6 percent in 1993).
Yes, the dips have dipped. Yet, while encouraging, the numbers are once again deceptive; bulging lips continue to be a major problem among the “dipping dudes.” For example, roughly two of every five baseball players admitted to regularly using chewing tobacco on each of the last three drug-use surveys, while nearly one-third of hockey players, wrestlers and football players also admitted regular use. Translation: Little, if any, progress has been made since 1997.
My fellow athlete is no dip; he is merely susceptible to the influences of his respective culture. Spit tobacco is to a ballplayer what cigarettes are to the supermodel: one part bravado, the other part sex. As a young wrestler I was taught that smokeless tobacco suppresses appetite and eliminates excess water weight. I have known other athletes to use spit tobacco to reduce anxiety. Collectively, we believe that it is a better alternative than smoking because it doesn’t affect lung capacity. And above all else, like the ballplayer, it is used to some extent to declare our masculinity. There is nothing more supremely male than packing a huge dip and spitting on the ground.
The rule is out, and it has been out for more than 17 years. However, until the athletics community — specifically those athletics administrators, coaches and officials involved in high-risk sports — takes the legislation seriously, we will see little, if any, improvement.
As a community, we can no longer look the other way. A poster with the catchphrase, “You spit, you sit,” is effective only if enforced. Athletes must be educated on the downfalls of using spit tobacco by those they respect most — their role models and coaches. Finally, those who already use must be given the tools to quit; they must be given addiction counseling.
I’ll close with this: Regardless of the approach taken, something needs to be done. I have seen too many of my teammates exhibit early signs of cancer — white lesions or patches in the area where they hold their dip. I have witnessed the symptoms of withdrawal cripple a wrestler’s fortitude. And I have watched my friends and former college athletes continue to struggle with their addictive habit well after their athletics career.
In the end, I hope that the many benefits of collegiate competition are not cut short by a powerful and deadly cultural addiction.
Matt McDougall, who joined the staff of the National Center for Drug Free Sport, Inc., earlier this year as a drug-testing collector, is a former wrestling student-athlete at Augustana College (South Dakota). He is a former student-athlete member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports and was a member of the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
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By Matt McDougall
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
I knew I was not alone, yet I often felt like an outsider. I am a former college wrestler, and I’m not addicted to chewing tobacco.Unlike most of my teammates, my room was not strewn with “spitters” — 20-ounce bottles filled to various degrees with used dips and darkly clouded chew-spit. Tripping a landmine — a poorly sealed bottle in the middle of the living area — was not a concern. And I did not construct a pyramid of dead soldiers — empty chew containers — on my windowsill for all to see, though some of my teammates did.
According to TobaccoFreeU.org, 3.6 percent of the male population, ages 18-24, uses chewing tobacco. Sadly, I wish this percentage held true for my fellow athletes. The most recent NCAA drug-use survey reported that more than 16 percent of the athlete population, spanning both division and gender, uses chewing tobacco. That percentage is doubly troubling considering that it is buoyed largely by male athletes in four sports: baseball, football, ice hockey and wrestling. Athletes in those sports report usage of 42, 29.8, 36.7, and 34.6 percent, respectively.
The astronomical statistics have found their way into the membership. In the past 17 years, the NCAA has made several attempts to reduce tobacco use throughout the athletics community. In 1990, the NCAA banned tobacco use at any championship activity. In 1994, tobacco use was forbidden during practice and competition. And most recently, in 2002, the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee implemented a zero-tolerance policy to give bite to the legislation. The over-arching message: “You spit, you sit.”
These legislative actions have had some success. Since the drug-use survey in 1993, tobacco use across division and gender has been cut nearly in half: down 14 percent (from 30.6 percent in 1993).
Yes, the dips have dipped. Yet, while encouraging, the numbers are once again deceptive; bulging lips continue to be a major problem among the “dipping dudes.” For example, roughly two of every five baseball players admitted to regularly using chewing tobacco on each of the last three drug-use surveys, while nearly one-third of hockey players, wrestlers and football players also admitted regular use. Translation: Little, if any, progress has been made since 1997.
My fellow athlete is no dip; he is merely susceptible to the influences of his respective culture. Spit tobacco is to a ballplayer what cigarettes are to the supermodel: one part bravado, the other part sex. As a young wrestler I was taught that smokeless tobacco suppresses appetite and eliminates excess water weight. I have known other athletes to use spit tobacco to reduce anxiety. Collectively, we believe that it is a better alternative than smoking because it doesn’t affect lung capacity. And above all else, like the ballplayer, it is used to some extent to declare our masculinity. There is nothing more supremely male than packing a huge dip and spitting on the ground.
The rule is out, and it has been out for more than 17 years. However, until the athletics community — specifically those athletics administrators, coaches and officials involved in high-risk sports — takes the legislation seriously, we will see little, if any, improvement.
As a community, we can no longer look the other way. A poster with the catchphrase, “You spit, you sit,” is effective only if enforced. Athletes must be educated on the downfalls of using spit tobacco by those they respect most — their role models and coaches. Finally, those who already use must be given the tools to quit; they must be given addiction counseling.
I’ll close with this: Regardless of the approach taken, something needs to be done. I have seen too many of my teammates exhibit early signs of cancer — white lesions or patches in the area where they hold their dip. I have witnessed the symptoms of withdrawal cripple a wrestler’s fortitude. And I have watched my friends and former college athletes continue to struggle with their addictive habit well after their athletics career.
In the end, I hope that the many benefits of collegiate competition are not cut short by a powerful and deadly cultural addiction.
Matt McDougall, who joined the staff of the National Center for Drug Free Sport, Inc., earlier this year as a drug-testing collector, is a former wrestling student-athlete at Augustana College (South Dakota). He is a former student-athlete member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports and was a member of the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
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