Jarvis Jenkins suspended first 4 games of season for testing positive for banned substance (Merged)

[Commander Adama]

elkabong82, on 27 Jul 2013 - 03:42, said:

 

As I said in the GHH overreaction thread, if you want to claim a bad culture, then look at Seattle with the adderall popping and their head coach's cheating history.

 

 

 

Hahahaha nice

[Commander PK]

Needless to say, when I read the text yesterday I was pissed off.  I deliberately did not show up to post here yesterday, because I was so angry.  With that said, I've had a day to calm down about it, and you know what....I'm still pissed, but I'm not in the "sky is falling" crowd either.  This suspension does not make or break our team. 

 

For me, the players simply MUST be more responsible in all facets of their personal conduct.  They are letting themselves, the team, and the fans down with these suspensions.  Whatever you might think about taking this or that supplement, the bottom line is the NFL rules say it's NOT ok unless it's an approved substance.  They will suspend you for it.  What is and what isn't acceptable too cryptic?  Parameters not clear enough?  Labels don't always show all the ingredients? 

 

It's really not that difficult or complicated.  If you are not 100% sure what you are about to injest is OK, don't take the damn thing.

 

Still really looking forward to the season, and I don't think this even comes close to making or breaking us, but I do think those upset about all these suspensions over the last couple of years are right to be.  Mike Shanahan can talk until he is blue in the face about being responsible with taking even OTC medications, but at the end of the day these are grown man who should be expected to not do anything that would jeapordize their position with the team.  The team NEEDS Jarvis Jenkins on the field with them.  Not sitting at home watching the games on T.V.  The players need to act responsibly regardless of what their personal feelings on the matter are.  For example, personally, I feel that weed should be legalized, but it's still illegal.  If for no other reason than the mind-boggling amount of money the government spends (wastes) on prosecuting and jailing people over it, but at the end of the day it's still illegal.  Until it's not, you should not smoke it, and if you get caught multiple times you are probably going to do some time.  The rules are the rules.

[Larry]

I'm seeing a lot of excuses. 

 

"The FDA doesn't allow supplement makers to list all their ingredients" 

 

"The list of banned substances is too confusing" 

 

"Heck, some other team is worse" 

 

"Some of these substances should really be allowed" 

 

But I keep coming back to "well, other teams seem to be able to deal with these insurmountable goals." 

 

Obviously, it is possible to comply with the rules.  (Or, at least, get caught a lot less often.) 

 

There is a point where you have to admit that it's not a coincidence that these things seem to happen a LOT more often, to us, than to other teams.  Where it's impossible to buy the "no doubt some local fisherman, out for a pleasure cruise, at night, in eel-infested waters" coincidence theory, any more. 

 

Something is different between these other teams, and us.  I don't know what it is.  But I'm not buying random distribution, any more. 

[Shkspr]

Of Course, things like this don't help:

FDA warns one brand of vitamin B supplement contains dangerous steroids

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/health/fda-steroid-warning/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

 

Even when you know what's in your supplements, you don't know what's in them.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Here's some reading for anyone who wants to do more than just bloviate in their posts lol:

 

 

Adderall under scrutiny, but players say banned drug still being used to gain edge

 

 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive back Aqib Talib is serving a four-game suspension for using a performance-enhancing drug. That drug is Adderall. None of the dozen or so players I spoke to would say they used Adderall, but all said they knew a player who has used the drug prescribed to patients with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

 

Apparently the drug is used throughout the season, but peak periods are in training camp and around the halfway point, when bodies break down and minds are weary.

The effects "like a hundred cups of coffee," one player described. In his statement following his suspension, Talib said he used Adderall once, without a prescription, at the beginning of training camp in August.

 

Players I spoke with say Adderall is taken with a steady stream of diet soda or coffee and the effect is an ability to super-concentrate for anywhere from 10-15 hours. Side effects include a loss of appetite and inability to sleep, sometimes for more than a day.

 

 

 

Adderall has unwitting NFL players testing positive for a banned substance

 

Giants safety Tyler Sash (Ha! lol) isn’t one for public speaking. Nerves take over. Concentration fails him. He stammers through sentences. So when his hometown of Oskaloosa, Iowa, decided to honor their local Super Bowl hero last March with Tyler Sash Day, he knew he would have to say a few words and confront his fear.

 

The solution: A prescription from his doctor for Adderall, an amphetamine used to treat attention deficit disorders that he says he had never taken before. On Saturday, March 24, Sash said, he took two pills. The next morning, before accepting a key to the city, he took two more. The effects were immediate, he said. Suddenly, he was detail-oriented and meticulous like never before. He made it through the ceremony without a hitch.

 

Realizing it, or not, Sash had stepped on a supercharged fault line.

 

By chance, the next day, the National Football League called to inform Sash he had been randomly selected for a drug test, Sash said. Sash supplied a urine sample, thinking nothing of it until a week and a half later, when a FedEx envelope arrived from the league office.

 

It was news the modern athlete dreads. The test had found traces of a performance-enhancing drug in his system, and he faced suspension. Adderall, a prescription drug, was the culprit, he said.

 

By now, this is a saga with echoes familiar across the sports plain. Sash is apparently not Lance Armstrong, who was accused of doping that stretched out over many years. Nor is he baseball’s Ryan Braun, whose punishment for a positive test was ultimately overturned on a technicality.

 

But Sash, along with two other Giants and a growing number of NFL players who say they have tested positive for using Adderall, have been lumped in the same group — athletes denying wrongdoing with pleas of ignorance or insisting it was an accident or that they had been misled by a trainer or doctor.

 

They are met with the usual barrage of questions over substances banned by their sport: When did you take it? Why did you take it? Did you know you were taking it?

 

This year, the cases have multiplied.

 

 

 

The NFL's Drug Problem: How the League's Drug Policy Is Broken

 

 

he NFL has a serious drug problem. One that is entirely derivative of their negligence to police a lawless, self-created environment of cheating. On July 25, 2011, to the jubilation of fans across the globe, the NFL and the NFLPA ended their five-month dispute and emerged with a new collective bargaining agreement.

 

[...]Technically, the NFL and NFLPA condemned the use of performance enhancing drugs in the CBA....Keep in mind, the CBA was ratified on August 4, 2011.  Note that, under (section , it reads that the NFLPA and NFL will agree “over the next several weeks” to develop appropriate blood testing.

 

Today, 20 months after the CBA was ratified, the two sides have yet to agree on the parameters of the testing.

 

Because these terms have yet to be agreed upon by the NFL and NFLPA there has been zero blood testing in the NFL during this period of time. Remember, human growth hormone, or as it is colloquially recognized by its acronym form HGH, can only be recognized through blood testing. So despite the methodical system of steroid and narcotic testing the NFL employs, and the presence of HGH on the league's banned substance list, a player using HGH can't be detected through the NFL's standard urine testing.

 

Translation: Any NFL player who has used, or is using, HGH over the past two seasons has done so without fear of punishment.

[Karver]

Regarding Jenkins from some of the reports I have seen he tested positive "for a substance women take for breast cancer" There is a very strong likelihood that the substance is anastrozole which didn't come from anything Jenkins might have gotten from GNC.

[Ashburn Dave]

Every year, major injuries galore and drug suspensions seem to afflict the Skins proportionately more than other NFL teams.  The trend continues.  Exacerbating the growing depth problem?  The $18 million curse we have (again).

 

We're cursed.

 

So cursed that we finish last in the division every year and will never make the playoffs............oh wait

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

Meh.  Things happen.  Hopefully Jarvis will learn from it and be extra motivated when he gets back.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Our suspension list is kind of inflated

 

Fred Davis and Trent Williams were marijuana infractions not PEDs.

 

Tanard Jackson was a marijuana infraction from his stint in Tampa.

 

Jordan Black (even though he was hosed) Phillip Buchanon and Cedric Griffin all tested positive for PEDs and are all no longer with the organization.  So I could care less about their positive tests. lol

 

Rob Jackson and Jarvis Jenkins tested positive for PEDs and are still on the roster, there are absolutely ZERO excuse for those two especially because they are still on the roster.

None of us care what they took. We care that they failed a test period.

[MEANDWARF]

If this is true, ticks me off. Watch all this PED/HGH crap is like watching the Florida Gator or Georgia Bulldog Police Blotter, who's next.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

Why is this labeled as a PED?  I thought I read that the supplement in question(wasn't named) contained a known masking agent?  There is a huge difference in being HOT and taking something OTC that may contain a masking agent. 

Maybe the NFL needs to come out with it's own line of supplements or approve a brand or two that players can get.  Then there would be know worries if it is safe or not.  The take it to the training staff is kind of bogus, if ingredients are not listed how will they know?  Should each team hire a chemist so they can check every kind of supplement that a player wants to take?

 

There is one. Products labelled 'NSF' are OK. It is simple. Go to NSF.org. Search for the type of supplement you want. Buy from that list. Only that list. Or....search for the one you are wanting to take. Not on the list? Well, in that case, you probably should absolutely verify beyond any doubt that it is acceptable. Most other teams do not have this problem at all with PED violations.   

It's funny how no one responded to this post. 

 

lol

I'm sorry that I don't excuse Trent and Fred because it was just weed. Point is, they missed games because of that ****.

 

No one in this thread is calling Shanahan a bad leader or any **** like that. We are saying that this is a problem that needs to be fixed and even he said that yesterday.

 

No said the Skins will go 0-16 because of this suspension but will it hurt? Hell yeah

 

 

A lot of jumping to the extremes on the opposite point of view

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

.....

None of us care what they took. We care that they failed a test period.

Well some of us do anyway.

Hail.

[Diesel Hog]

Can Jenkins appeal this?

 

For those calling him names, CHILL!  This is a good guy, and I've been following him since his days at Clemson.  He's a good guy, and has absolutely NO HISTORY of breaking rules, getting in trouble, or taking illegal drugs / banned substances.

[elkabong82]

Our suspension list is kind of inflated

 

Fred Davis and Trent Williams were marijuana infractions not PEDs.

 

Tanard Jackson was a marijuana infraction from his stint in Tampa.

 

Jordan Black (even though he was hosed) Phillip Buchanon and Cedric Griffin all tested positive for PEDs and are all no longer with the organization.  So I could care less about their positive tests. lol

 

Rob Jackson and Jarvis Jenkins tested positive for PEDs and are still on the roster, there are absolutely ZERO excuse for those two especially because they are still on the roster.

None of us care what they took. We care that they failed a test period.

 

If you are claiming there is a problem at Redskins Park, then you have to substantiate it and that means looking at the context of the violations. 

 

Trent and Davis cleaned up their acts, so where's the credit to the team for helping that happen? If you only give credit to the players for that, then you can only give blame to the players as well.

 

Again, Black had a prescription, his suspension was complete BS. Jackson took codein for a toothache and he had proof that he had dental work done just before the test. Tanard Jackson got in trouble for stuff he did in Tampa. We took a flier on him because of the cap penalties, same with Cedric Griffin. Without cap penalties I doubt either player is brought in/that we take a risk with those players. 

 

Buchanon and Jenkins both knew to get stuff approved by the NFL, didn't, and they learn a hard lesson.

 

There isn't a culture at Redskins Park of players taking drugs to gain an edge or because they are addicts. Yes we want more personal responsibility out of players. 2 of those suspended, Trent and Fred, have shown personal responsibility since. 2 other suspensions were bogus. 1 was from what happened on another team. You have 3 that happened here that were legit team problems, over 3 years. Again, the kind of problem you and others are claiming exists with the team, doesn't. That kind of problem exists in Seattle. 5 players popped all around the same time for the same drug.

[ZRagone]

Here's some reading for anyone who wants to do more than just bloviate in their posts lol:

 

I don't think anyones suggesting the NFL's drug policy is perfect or not "broken".

 

But there's not one drug policy for the Redskins and one for 31 other teams. 

 

EVERY team is functioning off the same flawed drug policy. EVERY team is getting these checks. EVERY team has the potential for adderall to show up in a player and it be counted against them.

 

Everyone is playing on the same play field, even if you think that playing field sucks....and we're the leader by a far margin amongst those on that field.

Can Jenkins appeal this?

 

For those calling him names, CHILL!  This is a good guy, and I've been following him since his days at Clemson.  He's a good guy, and has absolutely NO HISTORY of breaking rules, getting in trouble, or taking illegal drugs / banned substances.

Already appealed and failed. He found out about this back in march apparently.

 

Whose calling him names?

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

I wonder if there's a Seattle board excusing away their guys and slamming the Redskins?

Hail.

[nemocystem]

_{ok everyone, take a deep breath.  yes...it is upsetting, i concur.  however, the thing to keep in mind here is what people are being suspended for exactly.  in JJ's case it was a fringe element in an over-the-counter supplement that wasn't even listed in the ingredients (which is all-too-common with that industry).  he acknowledged his mistake & accepted the responsibility by admitting he still should have made certain to check for a product that had the NSF label on it.  i wish it didn't happen, but maybe eventually these guys will learn that they just can't take these sort of chances with their careers.}

 

_{same went for the Aderral susupension for Jordan Black where he has an approved prescription but he was suspended due to a flaw in paperwork filing.  funny, though how Sherman avoided suspension for a much less reasonable cause.  even more interesting that it allowed Sherman to play in a playoff game against us in which we had players suspended for somewhat erroneous reasons.  especially interesting that Mara is head of the competition committee.}

 

_{i dunno...not suggesting anything per se...but it is all very interesting how Carriker goes down & the next day his backup is suspended 4 games.  i understand there is an appeals process & that suspensions aren't (supposed to be) announced until the appeal is officially denied, but it really borders on coincidence as to when these suspensions get announced.}

 

_{i would LOVE to see some hard data as to how long EVERY case took to go through positive test, to appeals denial, to announcement of suspension on a case by case basis.  it would be very interesting to see how (in)consistent this process might actually be.}

 

_{it's disappointing to be sure regardless.  i'm actually very pleased that JJ just came out & took ownership & vowed to change the error in his ways. it's quite refreshing especially after watching this whole Ryan Braun fiasco.  though it doesn't excuse his irresponsibility, i hope that he & other players on the team take note & come to terms with the fact that they are under a high-powered microscope & their decisions can greatly impact all the lives around them.}

 

_{i think we'll survive 4 games & it may be a small blessing to have him not risk injury until after the bye-week...but i really would like there to be no more effing drawbacks before the season starts please...is that too much to ask?}

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Here's some reading for anyone who wants to do more than just bloviate in their posts lol:

 

I don't think anyones suggesting the NFL's drug policy is perfect or not "broken".

 

But there's not one drug policy for the Redskins and one for 31 other teams. 

 

EVERY team is functioning off the same flawed drug policy. EVERY team is getting these checks. EVERY team has the potential for adderall to show up in a player and it be counted against them.

 

Everyone is playing on the same play field, even if you think that playing field sucks....and we're the leader by a far margin amongst those on that field.

 

WTF? lol...

 

The three articles I posted had nothing whatsoever to do with exonerating any of the Skins players. I posted them to put something factual into the convo, because frankly it's getting irritating reading posts from ES members who act as if A) all they need to know is that Skins players failed, nothing else matters...and 2) everything in your average Taco Bell burrito could trigger a failed drug test.

 

There are so many shades of grey in this topic that the more you know and understand about NFL drug tests and PED usage in the league, the more idiotic most of these comments and posts sound, on both sides.

[ZRagone]

 

Here's some reading for anyone who wants to do more than just bloviate in their posts lol:

 

I don't think anyones suggesting the NFL's drug policy is perfect or not "broken".

 

But there's not one drug policy for the Redskins and one for 31 other teams. 

 

EVERY team is functioning off the same flawed drug policy. EVERY team is getting these checks. EVERY team has the potential for adderall to show up in a player and it be counted against them.

 

Everyone is playing on the same play field, even if you think that playing field sucks....and we're the leader by a far margin amongst those on that field.

 

WTF? lol...

 

The three articles I posted had nothing whatsoever to do with exonerating any of the Skins players. I posted them to put something factual into the convo, because frankly it's getting irritating reading posts from ES members who act as if A) all they need to know is that Skins players failed, nothing else matters...and 2) everything in your average Taco Bell burrito could trigger a failed drug test.

 

There are so many shades of grey in this topic that the more you know and understand about NFL drug tests and PED usage in the league, the more idiotic most of these comments and posts sound, on both sides.

 

I get that, but throughout all of this convo the past day we've had multiple people trying to excuse the Redskins because the system is bad. While your links help prop up the notion that the system is bad (and I actually agree with that), the fact the system is bad doesn't really bolster their argument that it should excuse the Redskins and the trends that we've seen. Bad system or not, our guys are doing things that raise a red flag in that bad system at a rate 5 times that of the average. So even with the system being poor, there's still the question of why we're managing to have players getting hooked by it at a significantly greater rate.

[HeluCopter29]

If there's any silver lining to this it's that our schedule the first 4 weeks isn't exactly brutal.  And then we have a bye week to reinsert him into the scheme.

 

With the exception of maybe Green Bay I can't really see his absence affecting the W/L of any of our games this year.

[AzSkinsFan63]

Does anyone think that there is a possibility of some type of penalty towards the team as a whole?

Yuu mean like maybe 18 million next year....hmmm..maybe

[Dirt]

Can Jenkins appeal this?

If you ever hear that a player has been suspended, they've already been through appeals.

[Major Harris]

And they will continue to break the rules when they only get 4 game suspensions.

4 games is 25% of the season. That's not exactly chump change

[rskin72]

Well, interesting posts in this thread.  But, while I see many post's suggesting that our coach and FO need to get a handle on this "rampant" issue in the locker room, I did not see many suggestions as to what needs to happen (from the team perspective) to correct this issue that many feel strongly about.  It is very easy to say, "Well, the team needs to do something"......the more difficult issue is what exactly the team should do.  Apparently they educate the players concerning use of banned substances as our latest 4 game violator mentioned in his press conference.....so that is not the issue.    

 

The players are all adults.  They are educated as to what the league policies are on banned substances.  Outside of having an assistanct coach follow them around after hours, what the heck else can you do?  Should the team add additional game suspensions to what the NFL does?  Should the team fine the violators?  Should the team cut violators? 

 

Each of the circumstances for the Redskins players who were suspended were different.  It is not as if several players popped at the same time for the same substance.....or that anyone has been tied to any HGH labs as baseball players have.  In most of the cases, I do not think the players suspended were guilty of trying to use a banned substance to improve on field performance.....so while our players are guilty of violating league rules, just seems like they think that maybe they will not get caught.  I mean, Jenkins admitted that he had all the information to make the correct decision concerning the substance that he took, but he still took the substance.  Come on. 

 

I just get tired of issues like this, where somehow we try to assign blame all around....and there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.   The training is there, the penalities are there....the policies are not new, and neither are the players involved.  The individuals are to blame here.....for me the buck stops right there.  And, to be honest, I am not really that upset....outside of the fact that we lose a valuable player for 4 games.  I do not see an underlying culture of cheating....i.e. taking banned substances in order to improve on field performance....based on what I have read about the various suspensions that have happened to players on our team. 

 

BTW....we lost 2 starters to injury??  I know Robinson was injured.....but he was not a starter.  Who else was injured?

[HeluCopter29]

BTW....we lost 2 starters to injury??  I know Robinson was injured.....but he was not a starter.  Who else was injured?

 

Adam Carriker.