'Deer antler' spray vendor Mitch Ross says he is still sending products to Ravens
Mitch Ross made headlines during last season's Super Bowl for alleging that, among others, former Baltimore Ravens LB Ray Lewis used some of Ross' non-steroid performance-enhancing products such as deer antler spray.
He's back on Wednesday's episode of "60 Minutes Sports" claiming he is still shipping product to the NFL franchise despite having his company S.W.A.T.S shut down by the state of Alabama, where he was charged with 260 counts of deceptive trade.
"Two weeks ago I sent 400 of our 'pain chips' to the Ravens," Ross told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday night. He said on "60 Minutes" the order came via safety James Ihedigbo, who Ross says he has worked with since 2007. Ihedigbo declined comment to "60 Minutes."
The chips aren't necessarily against NFL rules. In fact, many, most notably the state of Alabama where S.W.A.T.S. was located, believe Ross' products have no impact on performance at all. On "60 Minutes," Dr. Steven Novella, a professor of neurology at Yale Medical School, analyzed the products and declared: "There's no energy in those stickers. They're just a piece of plastic."
"What I'd say to that is he doesn't know what he's talking about," Ross said. "He doesn't understand frequency and how the human body responds to frequency."
Ross likened it to how sunshine can trigger a body to generate vitamin D even though a ray of sun isn't vitamin D.
No matter how controversial his products are, he says athletes continue to believe in his work. Ross told Yahoo that he thinks the reason the state of Alabama shuttered his company and banned him from doing business in the state is because of his past ties to football players at the Universities of Auburn and Alabama.
"I can't prove it," he told Yahoo Sports, "but I believe Auburn and Alabama came together and did something."
Attorney General Luther Strange saw it differently, gaining a restraining order against Ross because "the chips are long on claims and short on science … marketed and sold under specific panacean-like [sic] promises that imply the science is there and the only variable on the results is your money."
Ross is now working as a consultant for a Massachusetts company, itsthatcool.com. "60 Minutes Sports" airs 10 p.m. ET Wednesday on Showtime.
