Who is Dave Jacobs?
Branch Warren’s Training Partner Pleads Guilty to Steroid Distribution
David Jacobs, training partner of IFBB Pro bodybuilder Branch Warren, admitted to selling 40,000 vials of anabolic steroids and several thousand units of growth hormone as part of a sealed plea agreement earlier this month. The Plano-based national level bodybuilding competitor and personal trainer pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids. He was indicted in May 2007 as part of Operation Raw Deal.
Jacobs gained national attention in recent weeks after revealing to CBS 11 (Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT) that, as a condition of his plea agreement, he would cooperate fully with federal prosecutors by releasing the names of professional athletes to which he supplied anabolic steroids and growth hormone. In exchange, other charges would be dropped and he would receive three years probation instead of maximum of five years in federal prison.
Statements by Jacobs on his website implied that he worked with several NFL and IFBB athletes:
Local CBS TV affiliate KTVT wasted no time identifying NFL football player and former Dallas Cowboy Matt Lehr as one of the athletes linked to Jacobs. As proof of their relationship, they showed Matt Lehr photographed with David Jacobs.
While mainstream media may only be interested in NFL players to which Jacobs sold anabolic steroids and ignoring Jacobs’ ties to bodybuilding, those of us who follow professional bodybuilding know David Jacobs was a regular training partner of Branch Warren along with Jay Moore; he replaced Johnnie Jackson as part of Branch’s hardcore training triumvirate last year. There is no shortage of photographic and videographic evidence documenting the relationship between Branch and David including but not limited to scenes in Branch Warren’s DVD and the featured training articles in Flex Magazine.
David Jacobs forfeited over $25,000 cash, his 2005 Hummer H2, 2005 Ford Mustang, and his new Harley-Davidsons. But he still has his freedom as a result of the plea agreement (as long as he cooperates with the feds).
Operation Raw Deal had far-reaching effects in bodybuilding community; Branch Warren is clearly not the only one who has seen friends and training partners arrested or investigated as a result of this federal investigation. In fact, there are probably only a few degrees of separation between most competitive bodybuilders and those who have were busted in the aftermath of the steroid crackdown. However, the David Jacobs plea agreement highlights the vulnerability of the sport of competitive bodybuilding. It is probably only a matter of time before some aggressive prosecutor realizes that they could decimate the ranks of pro bodybuilding and cripple the sport at a fraction of the time and cost necessary to bring down a single professional baseball or football player who uses anabolic steroids.
