Tuesday, December 02, 2008

It's Just a Weight Loss Pill


Several NFL players have been suspended for 4 games without pay for violating the league's anti-doping policy. They are Duce McAllister (Saints), Charles Grant (Saints), Will Smith (Saints), Pat Williams (Vikings), Kevin Williams (Vikings), and Bryan Pittman (Texans). These suspensions come at a time that makes these players miss the regular season, but players will be available for the playoffs if their teams make it. The Vikings lose their starting defensive tackles that anchor their run stopping defense and the Saints lose two defensive players and their backup running back.


I'm a little confused. Something isn't right. The initial reports claimed that NFL doctors cleared StarCaps for use by players. Some of the athletes mentioned have actually filed suit against StarCaps for unfair business practices and false advertising because StarCaps contained Bumetanide, which can act as a mask for steroids. The NFL claims that it sent a letter to the league and the Players Association in December of 2006 saying that StarCaps was added to the prohibited list of dietary supplement companies. If all of this is true, how can any of these guys knowingly sure StarCaps? Why would they continue to use it? Something is fishy here. Hopefully more comes out. Pat Williams' agent, Angelo Wright is filing a motion to put off his client's suspension. We'll see what happens from this one. I for one thought the NFL was going to let these guys off the hook, but I was wrong.






If these guys didn't test positive for a steroid, should they be suspended? Do the games that these players have played in (most notably the Vikings win over Chicago) count? What's the next shoe to drop?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although the detailes seem a little murkey, it is still thee players responsibilty to know what he is putting in his body. All NFL players should be smart enought to know they should clear their supplements with their organization's trainer first. Then if something like this happens the Jerry Jones's of the NFL are more equipped to deal with the NFL office than a player and the PA.

Unknown said...

I agree with Montez, players are responsible for themselves, for what they consume and for what they should advoid.

Inquisitive Mind said...

But if it isn't on the bottle, and from what I heard, the NFL had approved it, not banned it,....what happens in that case? We'll see if anybody appeals the decision or gets an injunction against the NFL.