NFLPA gets behind suspended players

So, the NFL players union has filed suit to block five of the six suspensions of players accused of violating the league's anti-doping policy.

The union says the players weren't adequately informed that the supplement they were taking contained the banned diuretic bumetanide, an ingredient not listed on the label of the supplement. The diuretic can be a masking agent for steroids.

The league counters that it sent two notifications that the manufacturer of the supplement, StarCaps, had been added to the list of banned supplement companies. Those letters, the league said, were sent to club presidents, GMs and head trainers, and to NFLPA executive Stacy Robinson, who oversees the steroid policy for the union.

Pat Williams and Kevin Williams of the Vikings, and Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith of the Saints are getting the NFLPA's backing here. Bryan Pittman of the Texans is not included in the suit.

But isn't the real issue here simpler that that? NFL policy couldn't be more clear: Players are responsible for what they put in their bodies. In an age when illegal performance-enhancing drugs have become such a blight on sports, the notion that any athlete would grab a supplement off the shelf without first having it cleared by his trainer defies logic.

A player who fails to closely monitor what he's taking does so at his own risk. And in this case, ignorance would not seem to be an adequate excuse. Now, if the players were told specifically that the supplement was cleared, that's a different matter, but there's no indication of that.

-- Mike James

Photo: Kevin Williams, left, and Pat Williams of the Vikings. Credit: Jim Mone / Associated Press

Comments

[cheach]

You are an idiot.
Lets look at the intent of the ban on these substances - to keep players from masking the use of steroids. So that's good and fine.
Now you've got here is people that took a weight loss supplement that listed its ingredients on the package - but didn't list the banned substance as part of its ingredients.
Did these players intentionally take a banned substance? No.
Did they do anything against the law? No.
Were they trying to mask the use of steroids - the real thing that the NFL is trying to make sure players aren't using? No.
So is it fair or just to ban these players for 4 games? hell no!
There are scum bags in the NFL that regularly break the law, often in very serious ways, beating their wives, drunk driving, cocaine, even murder, and yet they often get less of a punishment than these guys are getting for inadvertantly ingesting a "banned" substance that is perfectly legal and sold over the counter. Totally ridiculous. Its true, they were told that they are responsible for anything that they put their bodies, but there needs to be some reasonableness here. How about if they were at a hotel during a road game and someone at the catering company spikes the food with some "banned" substances. The players eat the food - remember they are responsible for whatever they put in their body - and now they have banned substances in their system. Would they be held responsible for something they didn't know was in the food? This isn't far off from that scenerio.

NFL - no fun league