NFL's Starcaps Suspensions To Be Heard By Federal Judge

WHY?

The question remains on the surface of most if not all die-hard NFL fans, fantasy players, media personnel, and trainers. To the untrained eye, the Starcaps supplement case currently being reviewed by a federal judge seems to be just another example of pro football players being found guilty of imbibing a substance banned in the NFL. Even taking a slightly closer look reveals a number of confusing issues, not the least of them being the stand the NFL lawyers are taking.

The stand is as follows: According to the NFL lawyers, any and all active players currently in the National Football League are to be responsible for any and all substances that are in their system for any reason, any person(s) found to have one or more illegal substances during testing are subject to possible suspension or further more drastic punishment.

I get that, I really do. I understand that for the most part, this rule absolutely needs to be upheld at all times. If not for the balance of the game, then at least for the reputation of the professional sport.

If not for rules against steroids such as HGH and Trombolone, and masking agents that can be used to conceal the use of said steroids (ie: Starcaps), professional football would not be nearly as popular as it is today.

The part that I don't get is how that stance pertains to this isolated situation. I mean seriously, when was the last time a player/agent has appealed a suspension vs. the use of steroids successfully?

A lot of sports writers and announcers claim that even just allowing just these six suspensions to successfully be appealed would open a pandora's box of litigation, beg to differ.

For those who are new to these suspensions, Pat Williams and Kevin Williams, both from the Minnesota Vikings, along with Deuce McAllister of the New Orleans Saints and three others have been suspended by the NFL for four games due to them supposedly imbibing the nutritional supplement Starcaps.

This supplement supposedly contains a chemical that when consumed, acts like a masking agent, keeping certain types of steroids from appearing on a drug screening test.

This whole fiasco seems to be completely riddled with what appears to be errors on the NFL's part. Not only did the players, along with their team trainers, have no knowledge that this supplement contained the illegal substance, the NFL has a 1-800 hotline available to all NFL players and personnel which tells them which supplements contain illegal substances and which are ok to take.

The trainers called the hotline, and Starcaps was not listed as containing anything unsavory.

Furthermore, after this was entered into court proceedings, the NFL issued a statement that said that papers were sent to each of the teams that told them specifically about Starcaps containing a masking agent.

Somehow all six of these players from three-plus teams and their trainers all knew that Starcaps contained a banned masking agent, continued to take it, and willingly decided to forego the risk.

Yeah right. And the Kansas City Chiefs are going to win the AFC West division. It seems to me, as well as a number of sports writers and broadcasters, that the NFL is just unwilling to state the obvious. They made a mistake, a number of mistakes, whether it was an outright baldfaced lie or just something along the lines of miscommunication.

Whatever it is, unless I have completely and utterly missed the picture, it seems that these players and their trainers did not know that this supplement contained any illegal substances banned by the NFL.

They did everything in their power to find out, including asking their trainers and calling the NFL's own 1-800 hotline, and in conclusion found that using it would not harm them or cause them to fail a drug screening.

The fact that this was not an isolated incident and that a number of players came up positive for the same masking agent around the same time seems to support this view.

I believe honestly that in this case, and only in this case, that these suspensions should not be upheld and the NFL should admit when they have done something wrong that not only affects the player's playing time, but takes money out of their pockets by not allowing them to do their jobs.

Seriously, even the NFLPA is siding with the players over their suspensions. Why would all of them go as far as file a lawsuit over a couple of games if they did not completely believe in their own innocence over these proceedings. In reality, it probably just comes down to the NFL having a long standing history of not admitting large and glaring mistakes.

While they're apologizing, if they ever do, they might as well admit that Ed Hochuli gave the Denver Bronco's a early Christmas present when he stole a game from the San Diego Chargers earlier this year. We all know that it was a fumble, not an incompletion.

-Mick (can be reached at [e-mail])