The Sports Corner

NFLPA goes grievance mad

You cannot accuse the NFLPA of not pulling their weight when it comes to defending their members’ rights these days.

The NFLPA has announced it will be filing grievances against the NFL on behalf of five of the six players who recently were suspended for the remainder of the regular season for testing positive to a banned substance. 

They will also file a grievance shortly against the New York Giants over their suspension of wide receiver Plaxico Burress and injury listing. It promises to be a busy time for NFLPA legal counsel Richard Berthelsen.

The issue of players taking a banned diuretic has been played out for over a month since the test results were confirmed. The NFL acted this week to formally suspend New Orleans’ Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith, Minnesota’s Pat Williams and Kevin Williams and Houston’s Bryan Pittman. The NFLPA will seek to have the suspensions of the first five players restrained until such time as the matter can be heard formally in Court. Houston long snapper Bryan Pittman will not be part of the grievance because he tested positive to a different diuretic to the other five.

What is at stake is whether or not the NFL knew that the product “Starcaps” which are available to the public over the counter contained the banned substance Bumetanide. Bumetanide can be used to mask other drugs in urine testing, most notably steroids. The NFL tested the product in their own independent laboratory as late as 2006. The NFLPA claims that those test results were kept from the NFLPA and its members leading to the current situation where five players have all tested positive to Bumetanide from using the product. The product does not list Bumetanide as an ingredient on the label, leading to speculation the five players may sue the producer of “Starcaps” for damages and lost wages should their suspensions ultimately stand.

In 2006, the NFL alerted team officials and the NFLPA that players should not use the product “Starcaps”. However, the NFLPA states that the memorandum given to the players about “Starcaps” never stated that the product had tested positive to a banned substance. The NFLPA says that the true purpose of the memorandum was due to commercial sponsorship agreements between the NFL and a rival diuretic producer and the NFL did not want to see players inadvertently supporting “Starcaps” to the detriment of that existing arrangement.

The NFL on the other hand has said that it’s anti-doping policy is strict and the onus of making sure that a player does not take a banned substance is on the player, not the NFL. The players involved are thus caught in between a rock and a hard place. The NFL has never suggested the players were irresponsible in taking “Starcaps” but has said the policy is clear and the tests have been confirmed as positive for a banned substance which has been on the banned list for many years. The players naturally are saying that they had no way of determining whether the product may or may not have resulted in a positive test because the banned ingredient was not listed on the product.

Clearly the NFL expects a very high standard from its players when it comes to banned substances. If the players are found to have innocently taken the product but still suspended a professional footballer will have to soon question everything they put into their body. A misrepresentation or being innocently mislead will no longer being a defence to avoid a suspension. Players would likely be expected to have all supplements in particular independently tested before they consumed them. But you have to wonder what responsibility a Federal Court may find the NFL owed to its players in not releasing positive laboratory results in 2006 when they tested the product.

Vikings’ pair Kevin and Pat Williams have successfully obtained a temporary restraining order in Hennepin County District Court which clears the way for them to play this weekend. Both are considered key players to their teams playoff aspirations, and the loss of both would likely hit the team hard. Their lawyer successfully argued before Judge Gary Larson that a temporary restraint of the suspensions be granted as the balance of convenience lay with the Williamses until the NFLPA grievance and possible Federal Court action were resolved. The NFL’s lawyers indicated to the Court that they would appeal the decision to a Federal Court to reinstate the suspensions.

In the meantime, the NFLPA has also indicated a grievance will be filed against the New York Giants who earlier this week suspended star Plaxico Burress for the remaining four regular season games and also listed him on the non-football injured reserve list which rules him out of any participation in this seasons playoffs. The NFLPA will be arguing that the suspension should not have been handed down until a police investigation and criminal complaint are finalised, and alternatively the suspension was too harsh considering the circumstances. The Giants have not commented on how they intend to proceed against the grievance, but are not expected to revoke the decision to suspend or reinstate Burress from the injured reserve list.