August 28, 2006, 9:45 am

So far baseball -- and Barry Bonds in particular -- have received the bulk of the attention when it comes to the use of performance enhancing drugs among athletes in the major sports.

That might be about to change. In this report published Sunday, the Charlotte Observer reveals that several members of the Carolina Panthers' 2004 Super Bowl team, including three of the five starting offensive linemen, regularly used potentially dangerous performance enhancers.

We can assume that if such drugs were in the Panthers' locker room, they probably have been in every NFL locker room at some point. Maybe they still are.

When the first red flags began to fly over steroids use in baseball, it didn't take long for the federal government to step in and pressure the players union into agreeing to testing.

Testing is already in place in the NFL, but the Charlotte Observer story offers at least some proof that it's obviously not working.

Armed with this information, it will be interesting to see if government officials are inclined to push the NFL for stricter testing methods, or renew their push for standardized testing for all major sports.

-- John Dudley