Bears' Lance Briggs weighs in on Viagra as a performance-enhancer -- for football

Bears LB Lance Briggs weighed in Thursday on Viagra as a potential performance-enhancer. (US Presswire)

Chicago Bears WR Brandon Marshall brought it up Wednesday, so to speak.

And LB Lance Briggs hopefully ended it on Thursday. If he didn't, Pfizer did.

Marshall called Viagra a drug NFL players are using as a performance enhancer ... on the field of play. Marshall was asked about Seattle's CBs Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman, who have been suspended by the NFL pending appeal for what was said to be a positive test of Adderall, the drug used in treatment of attention deficit disorder.

"It is such a competitive league, guys try anything just to get that edge," Marshall said. "I'm fortunate enough to be blessed with size and some smarts to give me my edge. But some guys, they'll do whatever they can to get an edge I've heard of some crazy stories. I've heard guys using like Viagra. Seriously. Because the blood is supposedly thin, some crazy stuff. So, you know, it's kind of scary with some of these chemicals that are in some of these things. ... Anytime you take anything over the counter -- if you don't approve it with your training room, you can get popped that quick. You know, it doesn't matter if it's Dayquil, Nyquil, any type of cough medicine. Even Hall's."

On Thursday, Briggs was asked about Marshall's comment.

Briggs said he drinks apple juice, "Orchard style," every day to maintain his playing health.

As far as the Viagra? Briggs found it a tough subject to tackle.

"Hey, I heard about that," Briggs said. "I guess boners ... there's going to be a lot of dangerous boners on the field, I guess. I don't know, I usually do the tackling, but apparently maybe some offensive guys they're getting boners. I'm gonna leave that one."

Pfizer, which owns the patent on the drug, denied it can be used this way.

A Pfizer spokesman told TMZ that Viagra was never intended to be used this way. The statement said Viagra should be used as “indicated solely for the treatment of erectile dysfunction,” and “Pfizer has not examined the safety of Viagra in men without ED and does not promote or encourage the use of Viagra for any use but the treatment of ED.”

Follow Bears reporter Gene Chamberlain on Twitter @CBSBears.