A federal judge on Friday denied a request by the NFL Players Association to put the suspensions of five players on hold while the case over the alleged use of a banned substance is being appealed.
However, NFLPA attorney Jeffrey Kessler said it didn’t necessary mean the players will miss any games at the start of this year’s season because there could be action at the appellate court level before the season starts.
Further, he said, US District Judge Paul Magnuson has sent some issues surrounding the suspensions of Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams to the state courts.
A trial date for those claims has been set for the middle of next month.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined to comment about the ruling.
POSITIVE
Kevin Williams and Pat Williams, who are unrelated, and three players for the New Orleans Saints tested positive for a banned diuretic last year and were each given four-game suspensions for violating the league’s doping policy.
Those suspensions were delayed while their cases were in federal court, but last week Magnuson threw out most claims by Kevin and Pat Williams and all claims involving the Saints’ Charles Grant and Will Smith, as well as those by Deuce McAllister, who was released by New Orleans after last season but hopes to play for another team during the upcoming season.
Both the NFL and the NFLPA have told the courts they plan to appeal to the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The union wants the appeals court to reconsider Magnuson’s dismissal of their lawsuit.
‘IRREPARABLE HARM’
Attorneys for the union had argued in court documents that the players would suffer “irreparable harm” if the NFL enforces the suspensions during the appeal process.
The league is appealing the judge’s decision to send some of Kevin and Pat Williams’ claims to state court. Those claims involve Minnesota laws on when and how employers can require employees to submit to drug testing.
They also prohibit Minnesota employers from disciplining employees for using a legal substance offsite during nonworking hours.
In his ruling last week, Magnuson said the NFL’s policy is clear: Players are responsible for what they put in their bodies and inadvertently ingesting a banned substance is not an excuse.
BUMETANIDE
The NFLPA and Kevin and Pat Williams had argued in separate lawsuits that NFL officials knew a weight-loss supplement called StarCaps contained the banned diuretic bumetanide back in 2006, despite the fact that the substance wasn’t listed on the label, and that the league should have notified players and federal regulators.
The NFL bans players from using bumetanide because the substance can be used as a masking agent for steroids.
None of the five players were accused of taking steroids.
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