Six Players Suspended in Diuretic Case

[JonLP24]

The NFL has announced that it has suspended six players without pay for testing positive for a banned substance.

The suspensions are for four games each.

The players are tailback Deuce McAllister and defensive ends Will Smith and Charles Grant of the New Orleans Saints, defensive tackles Pat Williams and Kevin Williams of the Minnesota Vikings and Houston Texans long snapper Bryan Pittman.

The players reportedly tested positive for a banned diuretic contained in a weight-loss product.

Attorney David Cornwell, who represents several of the players involved in the case, indicated after a recent set of appeal hearings that the independent administrator of the NFL's testing program, John Lombardo, testified he'd known previously that the weight-loss product contained the banned substance but he hadn't informed players of that for fear that other players might use that as a defense for positive tests in unrelated cases.

At least some of the players had maintained in their appeals that they tested positive for the banned diuretic bumetanide, which is on the NFL's list of prohibited substances as a possible masking agent for steroids, after using the weight-loss product StarCaps. The players had contended that the diuretic was not on the product's label and they ingested the banned substance unknowingly. Cornwell had said his clients would not have used StarCaps if they'd been informed that it contained bumetanide.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/theleague/nflnewsfeed/2008/12/six-players-suspended-in-diuretic-case.html

[dakota_democrat]

1. The Vikings better hope the Bears drop a few games.

Their stout run defense just took a big hit.

[nickgutierrez]

2. That fourth paragraph is a doozy.

The testing program's administrator knew about the problem beforehand, and didn't tell anybody? Even better, the ever-more-ridiculous NFL gives these guys the same suspension they give for human growth hormone? Come on. This should be a pretty straightforward lawsuit, and I'm torn between being amused and appalled that the league let it reach this point.

[JonLP24]

3. The commissioner is a republican

And also suspends players before they are convicted of crimes.

[mduffy31]

4. The NFL did tell the teams about it though

and the teams didn't inform their players. Bottom line in the whole thing is that the policy states that you are responsible for what goes into your body so you have to accept the consequences. I mean these guys were taking this product to lose weight, well how about mixing in a salad once and awhile?