I don't believe there is anything to it beyond Ray Lewis and the Crimson Tide being very topical at the moment. I fail to see how it is a story at all since none of his products offer any performance enhancing effect when held to the scientific method. I think it reflects poorly on Sports Illustrated to publish this nonsense. The thought process was: Ray Lewis is in the Super Bowl, Alabama won the BCSCG, and IGF-1 is a banned substance...must write for page clicks regardless of the fact oral application of IGF-1 has no enhancing effect short or long term.
This story does expose one issue - at least to me - because no matter how much control Saban has over the program, he is not omnipresent. He can't be everywhere at once nor have a proxy eye on his players at all times either. Guys like Ross could sabotage careers, not with his bunk products, but with his quid pro quo gifting of his phony products. Technically that is an illegal benefit and could become an issue if we see Alabama players representing his products down the line. I've heard this guy going back to around 2010 on Finebaum's radio show and he always struck me as shady. It was his consistent reminder of his "born-again" status, his insistence of great conspiracies to keep his products from being accepted, and a generally deceptive use of an athlete's name to represent his products. I thought he was a crook well before this and I had kind of forgotten about him.
Saban can educate guys but Ross can come in, have a young body builder look to him, spout off scientific facts he's created that would be hard for any intelligent person to know were untrue immediately, and provide fake testimonials of professionals who use his stuff while staying clean. He's a dangerous fellow...I would prefer he and his kind end up behind bars honestly.