The Seattle Seahawks and PEDs

[Steak Snabler]

Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner reportedly facing a one-year suspension for a third positive PED test:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/seahawks/2013/11/25/brandon-browner-facing-one-year-suspension-violation-substance-abuse-policy/3717483/

When is the Seattle Seahawks' continued use of PEDs going to become an issue?

The best team in the NFL has had seven players suspended for PED use in a four-year span (including one guy three times, and another overturned on a technicality).

Do football fans and media just not care?

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, is their title tainted?

(And yes, I know most of these guys tested positive for Adderall, or at least that's what they claim. A benefit of the NFL's drug policy is that the league will not make public what substance a player tests positive for, so a player can claim he took anything. Most of them say Adderall because there is not 'cheater' stigma attached).

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Do football fans and media just not care?

No, they don't.

 

[LongTimeListener]

It's a violation of the substance-abuse (i.e. recreational) policy, isn't it?

 

[Steak Snabler]

There's some gray area, I guess. Early reports said PEDs, now they're taking those references out. It's possible he skipped a drug test.

That could just be collective bargaining agreement legalese.

But I think we can agree that Adderall is a stimulant, and therefore has performance-enhancing qualities.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Essentially, the Seahawks are a bunch of cheats. All of the Seahawks' success is tainted. Everything the Seahawks have accomplished no longer counts in my book.

There is no other way to say this: The Seahawks are a complete fraud. Probably the biggest fraud in sports. Maybe in sports history.

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, it will not really count. Not to me it won't, and not to any rational sports fan/observer.

 

[MeanGreenATO]

I'm with Inky on this one. I think people just don't really care, which is pretty dumb.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Essentially, the Seahawks are a bunch of cheats. All of the Seahawks' success is tainted. Everything the Seahawks have accomplished no longer counts in my book.

There is no other way to say this: The Seahawks are a complete fraud. Probably the biggest fraud in sports. Maybe in sports history.

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, it will not really count. Not to me it won't, and not to any rational sports fan/observer.

Plus they cheat by piping in crowd noise.

 

[amraeder]

I'm with Inky on this one. I think people just don't really care, which is pretty dumb.

Not caring is dumb? Not caring seems the logical attitude to me. I think it's crazy how MUCH people care about it when it's related to baseball.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Essentially, the Seahawks are a bunch of cheats. All of the Seahawks' success is tainted. Everything the Seahawks have accomplished no longer counts in my book.

There is no other way to say this: The Seahawks are a complete fraud. Probably the biggest fraud in sports. Maybe in sports history.

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, it will not really count. Not to me it won't, and not to any rational sports fan/observer.

Plus they cheat by piping in crowd noise.

The Saints are a better home team anyway.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Apparently, the league could punish the Seahawks in the form of docked draft choices, per Peter King in his MMQB mailbag today (and for the record, I AM NOT Michael Alexander):

SEATTLE PENALTIES COMING? Peter, when is the league going to do something with regard to the repeated four-game suspensions for the Seahawks? Walter Thurmond just got it. Last year it was Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman. Bruce Irvin, Allen Barbre, Winston Guy and John Moffitt have all been hit with substance-abuse-related issues since 2011. When does this become a repeat offender type of thing in the league’s eyes?

(Editor’s note: After this e-mail arrived, Browner reportedly got busted again and is facing a one-year suspension.)

—Michael Alexander

It’s a valid question. There is a formula that calls for teams to be disciplined in the form of a fine when more than one player on the team in a year is suspended for violating league policy. Irvin, Thurmond and Browner would be three in one year. The NFL is on record as saying that it will consider docking a franchise draft choices if the poor behavior persists, and so that’s certainly going to be a question for the Seahawks going forward.

Seattle likely will be fined more than $200,000 under the league’s disciplinary formula for teams, given that, according to Pro Football Talk, the fines kick in at one-fourth of the second suspended players’ fine, and rise to one-third of the third player’s fine. If Browner is gone for a year, that’s a healthy fine; he makes $773,000 in base salary.

The solution, obviously, is for players to stop messing up. But for now, owner Paul Allen is going to have to write some checks. And if the league is serious about stopping this behavior or at least trying to, there will be more discussion by the 32 owners about docking draft draft choices for a team with so many violators.

http://mmqb.si.com/2013/11/26/colin-kaepernick-san-francisco-49ers-find-their-stride/2/

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Fans and media don't care because the NFL has for a long time had a testing and penalties program, so fans and media don't think people are getting away with anything whether they are or not. Also, I believe that even the dimmest fan understands the horrific physical toll the sport takes on its players, and there's something of a "whatever it takes to get over" attitude on PED use.
Rodney Harrison is a network commentator in good standing on the highest rated studio show. He's good at it, IMO. He's also someone who served a four-game suspension for HGH use. That situation would never, ever exist in baseball. I daresay relatively few fans even know Harrison was ever suspended.

 

[JC]

Essentially, the Seahawks are a bunch of cheats. All of the Seahawks' success is tainted. Everything the Seahawks have accomplished no longer counts in my book.

There is no other way to say this: The Seahawks are a complete fraud. Probably the biggest fraud in sports. Maybe in sports history.

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, it will not really count. Not to me it won't, and not to any rational sports fan/observer.

Plus they cheat by piping in crowd noise.

The Saints are a better home team anyway.

Oh how it pains me to share rooting interests with Bodie, but well done gentleman, well done.

 

[Morris816]

PED usage doesn't get the same scrutiny in the NFL because nobody who has been threatening to break particular records, or has set certain milestones, has been caught taking PEDs.

If Peyton Manning or Tom Brady had tested positive during any season in which they threatened or broke the single-season TD mark, or Adrian Peterson or Chris Johnson were soundly linked to PEDs during their 2,000-yard campaign last season, you can bet fans would be singing a different tune.

Plus, baseball fans like to talk about stats. There seems to be less interest in stats among football fans, unless it's how much they score in fantasy football.

 

[Steak Snabler]

PED usage doesn't get the same scrutiny in the NFL because nobody who has been threatening to break particular records, or has set certain milestones, has been caught taking PEDs.

If Peyton Manning or Tom Brady had tested positive during any season in which they threatened or broke the single-season TD mark, or Adrian Peterson or Chris Johnson were soundly linked to PEDs during their 2,000-yard campaign last season, you can bet fans would be singing a different tune.

Plus, baseball fans like to talk about stats. There seems to be less interest in stats among football fans, unless it's how much they score in fantasy football.

It's not just baseball, though. There have been major PED scandals in both the Olympics and the Tour de France.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

As a Niners fanboi, I think they should forfeit all their wins and lose a truckload of draft picks.

Seriously, as long as the offending players are suspended, nobody cares.

 

[Morris816]

PED usage doesn't get the same scrutiny in the NFL because nobody who has been threatening to break particular records, or has set certain milestones, has been caught taking PEDs.

If Peyton Manning or Tom Brady had tested positive during any season in which they threatened or broke the single-season TD mark, or Adrian Peterson or Chris Johnson were soundly linked to PEDs during their 2,000-yard campaign last season, you can bet fans would be singing a different tune.

Plus, baseball fans like to talk about stats. There seems to be less interest in stats among football fans, unless it's how much they score in fantasy football.

It's not just baseball, though. There have been major PED scandals in both the Olympics and the Tour de France.

True, but these are about individual performances in which they get played up as "America vs. the rest of the world."

So it was Patron Saint Lance Armstrong vs. Evil French Reporters until it was proven otherwise... and then it was only Lance Armstrong is not a Patron Saint but those damn reporters are still French.

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

Weed is a PED?

 

[Point of Order]

There's some gray area, I guess. Early reports said PEDs, now they're taking those references out. It's possible he skipped a drug test.

That could just be collective bargaining agreement legalese.

But I think we can agree that Adderall is a stimulant, and therefore has performance-enhancing qualities.

Are players allowed to take Adderall if they have a prescription for it?

 

[Bodie_Broadus]

Essentially, the Seahawks are a bunch of cheats. All of the Seahawks' success is tainted. Everything the Seahawks have accomplished no longer counts in my book.

There is no other way to say this: The Seahawks are a complete fraud. Probably the biggest fraud in sports. Maybe in sports history.

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl, it will not really count. Not to me it won't, and not to any rational sports fan/observer.

A bunch of cheats? So three out of 53 equals a bunch?

You're a moron. Who else has been suspended for this on the Hawks? Irvin for PED, Browner and Thurmond for a little weed. Who else?

Biggest fraud in sports history? Really? More so than Lance Armstrong who has a whole legacy based on total bull****? More than all the Yankees players that got caught?

Please.

 

[Steak Snabler]

There's some gray area, I guess. Early reports said PEDs, now they're taking those references out. It's possible he skipped a drug test.

That could just be collective bargaining agreement legalese.

But I think we can agree that Adderall is a stimulant, and therefore has performance-enhancing qualities.

Are players allowed to take Adderall if they have a prescription for it?

Yes, but they have to clear it with the NFL beforehand.