Hobert Checked After Test -- High Testosterone Level May Pose NFL Problem

Billy Joe Hobert, former University of Washington quarterback, faced losing his playing eligibility as early as last March because a steroids test showed a high level of testosterone he says was naturally produced.

Hobert avoided penalty but was monitored by the NCAA thereafter and could face more questions in the NFL if his testosterone level runs as high again.

The NFL checks for testosterone as part of its steroids-testing program, which begins for Hobert next month at the combine scouting camp in Indianapolis.

"If he gets tested, he gets tested," said John Messina, Hobert's attorney. "But I'm not worried, because that test was insufficient evidence of a violation."

Hobert did not return phone calls in the past week. But before declaring his intention to turn professional in December, he denied using steroids and said, "I'd like to keep taking tests." He cited a desire to learn more about his testosterone levels, which he believes may have played a role in his erratic behavior last spring.

At the time he tested high in March, he was encountering financial and marital problems. In April, he took out the first installment of an improper $50,000 loan that later cost him his college eligibility.

Considered one of the top quarterbacks in the upcoming draft, Hobert said he registered a 6.3-to-1 ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone on a March 13 test of team members administered by the NCAA. Males typically have a 1 to 1 ratio.

Officially, any ratio at 6 to 1 and above is considered a positive test, said Frank Uryasz, NCAA director of sports science. Standard punishment for a failed steroid test is a one-year loss of eligibility.

But the NCAA is cautious in penalizing a player for potential use of testosterone, a steroid hormone that the body produces naturally but that can also be taken in synthetic form to promote muscle growth or the rehabilitation of an injury.

Below a 10 to 1 ratio, the NCAA often gives the athlete the benefit of the doubt for a positive test, Uryasz said. Of the 5,157 football players tested for drugs by the NCAA during the six-month period Hobert was checked, 20 registered for testosterone at 6 to 1 or above but only four of them were declared ineligible.

"Unless we're 100 percent sure, we set them up for monitoring," Uryasz said. "Do we miss some? Yes. But we're not going to take their eligibility unless we're 100 percent sure."

The NFL also considers a 6 to 1 ratio a positive test, with a first-time offense carrying a minimum of a four-game suspension without pay. The league drug advisor, Dr. John Lombardo, can waive the punishment after consulting with the offending player, an NFL spokesman said.

Hobert said the university sent him to an NCAA testing facility at UCLA after the positive test, where he witnessed the opening of the second half of his original urine sample and confirmed the result. He said doctors there asked him a "long list of questions" about acne and other symptoms of steroid use.

Hobert said he had tested at 3.8 to 1 in the fall of 1991, and at 4.3 to 1 at the Rose Bowl where he was co-Player of the Game, before the 6.3 test. Those counts were registered after he had surgery on his throwing shoulder in January 1991, prompting him to complain in spring practice that he no longer could throw a ball 65 yards.

Doctors at the UCLA center made no determination as to the cause of the high testosterone level, but did not conclude that he used steroids, Hobert said.

"After a month or two, they told the university that there was no reason to believe I was injecting (steroids)," Hobert said. "What really saved my butt was that I was a quarterback and already overweight."

Steroid use is typically associated with linemen and linebackers. There is no established link between weight and testosterone, although infusions of testosterone can cause normal-sized people to gain up to 10 pounds, said Dr. Alvin Paulsen, an endocrinologist at the University of Washington school of medicine.

Hobert thereafter was required to be one of the 36 players selected every time the NCAA gave drug tests to the team on campus. He said he took only one other test, given to him in August of last year, before the school declared him ineligible in November for the improper loans.

Dennis Sealey, trainer for the Huskies, said the school never received details of the August test but learned that Hobert passed it. Hobert also said he did not know the ratio from that test.

The university also arranged for Hobert to see a Seattle endocrinologist after the March test, Sealey said. The specialist did not identify a source for the unusual level of testosterone, but ruled out the possibility that it was caused by a tumor.

Hobert said he suspects the testosterone surplus comes from his father, who also claims a high testosterone level. "I can lose and gain 100 pounds like that," said his father, Terry Hobert. "It's kind of a natural thing."

Sealey said the problem indeed could stem from Hobert's family, although no tests were performed on his father to confirm the link.

Less than 1 percent of all the NCAA athletes checked in the first six months of last year tested positive for banned drugs of any kind, and testosterone was the leading source for failed tests, according to the NCAA. No other Husky football players ever have tested positive for steroids or other drugs in an NCAA test, Sealey said.

Testosterone injections are used medically on males who have low amounts of the hormones in their testes or pituitary gland. Users can incur heart damage; those with naturally high levels face no such danger, Paulsen said.

With one positive test, Hobert already may be eligible for testing in the NFL beyond its normal program that checks players before they enter the league, before each season, and randomly during the rest of the year. According to NFL drug policy, any player who tested positive in college is subject to ongoing reasonable-cause testing.

Hobert, who is choosing an agent, plans to attend the NFL combine Feb. 10-15 at the Hoosier Dome, Messina said. The top college players will be timed and tested there, with the results distributed to NFL teams.