Brian Cushing Suspended 4 Games

[ethat001]

You guys are all wrong.

BRIAN CUSHING IS THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE WORLD.

I encourage EVERY young athlete to do drugs. Get your hands on the best steroids money can buy. It CLEARLY pays off. In baseball, football, wherever. Just try not to get caught UNTIL you've played for a while and gotten paid.

In the end - a mediocre young athlete can bust his butt off and fail -- and bag groceries at Safeway. OR - he could use steroids and get drafted, get millions of dollars and even get DROY. What happens if you get caught? You get to keep your awards, keep your MILLIONS, and you even get one month more vacation in September. Four game suspension is nothing, and if anything it encourages more people to do it. Why wouldn't a player like Justin Tryon or Rob Jackson start taking steroids? If they don't make the team their lives are marginal if not over. And the penalty is obviously small -- no one apparently cares.

I think there are two parties at fault:
1) Sports leagues (& Congress) -- harsher penalties for crimes such as this. He should've lost his DROY and probably should have been suspended the season since he was already suspected of prior drug use.

2) Fans - including ourselves. We still buy tickets to watch ARod, Bonds, Shawne Merriman.. And Houston fans will still cheer Cushing by next year when he gets that interception for a touchdown...


[disclaimer: i actually do not think anyone should do steroids. i'm just pointing out that given the current regulations and punishments, it makes financial sense to do so because it is not really punished]

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

Baseball is just retarded. To me the media drives all the crying over roids in baseball. It's like they pretty much ignore that the pitchers were doing it. Yet when a hitter does it they can't stop talking about for 10 straight days. I personally don't care cause everyone was taking juice. Actually I can't stand baseball so I really don't even care. lol.

lol yeah pitchers were the MOST likely to test positive

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by ethat001

You guys are all wrong.

BRIAN CUSHING IS THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE WORLD.

I encourage EVERY young athlete to do drugs. Get your hands on the best steroids money can buy. It CLEARLY pays off. In baseball, football, wherever. Just try not to get caught UNTIL you've played for a while and gotten paid.

In the end - a mediocre young athlete can bust his butt off and fail -- and bag groceries at Safeway. OR - he could use steroids and get drafted, get millions of dollars and even get DROY. What happens if you get caught? You get to keep your awards, keep your MILLIONS, and you even get one month more vacation in September. Four game suspension is nothing, and if anything it encourages more people to do it. Why wouldn't a player like Justin Tryon or Rob Jackson start taking steroids? If they don't make the team their lives are marginal if not over. And the penalty is obviously small -- no one apparently cares.

I think there are two parties at fault:
1) Sports leagues (& Congress) -- harsher penalties for crimes such as this. He should've lost his DROY and probably should have been suspended the season since he was already suspected of prior drug use.

2) Fans - including ourselves. We still buy tickets to watch ARod, Bonds.. And Houston fans will still cheer Cushing by next year when he gets that interception for a touchdown...


[disclaimer: i actually do not think anyone should do steroids. i'm just pointing out that given the current regulations and punishments, it makes financial sense to do so because it is not really punished]

Too late to make the big time first round contract bucks.

This really isn't the NFL's problem. If anything, it suggests that it's testing system, which caught Cushing, is about as effective as any system out there. So they suspended him, because they caught him.

If he's a habitual user, and I'm not saying he is or isn't, then the big story here is that they NCAA's testing system blows, or more likely, it's not actually a random system. The Texans were perfectly justified taking Cushing where they did and giving him all that money, because he wasn't just a one year wonder breakout player who slipped through the cracks one year, but rather, he was a four year player, and nearly a three year starter at USC who never once got caught in college, where there is actually plenty of interest around keeping student athletes away from drugs.

I don't give a crap what professional athletes put in their bodies. If this is your way of making a living, and you can comply with the policies of your league, I don't care if a guy needs eighteen pills and three cortizone shots (cortizone is an anabolic steroid) to get through the day. If that's what makes him perform his best, then he should do it. If he breaks an existing rule, then he takes his suspension like a man. Don't do it again. More specifically, don't get caught.

To recap: NCAA testing, woefully inadequate. NFL testing, excellent. I don't know if Cushing gets my vote for DROY over Orakpo or Matthews (specifically Matthews), but the whole idea of a revote is moronic. And good for the football writers for not making like the baseball writers moral majority. Again, I don't know if Cushing's on field play made him the best rookie, but apparently, those with a vote did feel that way, so that conversation should have been over at that point.

[ethat001]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

This really isn't the NFL's problem. If anything, it suggests that it's testing system, which caught Cushing, is about as effective as any system out there. So they suspended him, because they caught him.
...

I don't give a crap what professional athletes put in their bodies. If this is your way of making a living, and you can comply with the policies of your league, I don't care if a guy needs eighteen pills and three cortizone shots (cortizone is an anabolic steroid) to get through the day. If that's what makes him perform his best, then he should do it. If he breaks an existing rule, then he takes his suspension like a man. Don't do it again. More specifically, don't get caught.

To recap: NCAA testing, woefully inadequate. NFL testing, excellent.

Well, I agree the NFL testing is probably good, but how do we know the NFL testing is "excellent"? I feel that positive steroid tests are like finding a roach. You may squash that roach, but you know there are about 100 more you didn't find yet...


Side note: The irony is that "Cushing disease" in medicine results from excess steroids in the body.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by ethat001

Well, I agree the NFL testing is probably good, but how do we know the NFL testing is "excellent"? I feel that positive steroid tests are like finding a roach. You may squash that roach, but you know there are about 100 more you didn't find yet...

I don't think it really matters whether they find anyone else or not. The NFL mandates a four game suspension for first time violators of the substance abuse policy, which seems like enough of a deterrent to limit overt cases of steroid usage. In other words, if you don't respect the NFL's policy, you'll be out of the league before too long.

I highly doubt Brian Cushing will be caught a second time. If he does, then it's a year long suspension.

My point is that people who use performance enhancers aren't necessarily cheaters. Cheaters, in my mind, are those players that never play within the rules of a game, which may include usage of performance enhancers. Blitzing in the pro bowl is cheating. Taking performance enhancers that aren't on the NFL substance policy (or even taking things that are, if incidental) would not be cheating.

Side note: The irony is that "Cushing disease" in medicine results from excess steroids in the body.

That is pretty awesome.

[SmootSmack]

Interesting that Cushing lost his 2nd team all-pro status...maybe Orakpo's got a shot there?

[dmek25]

what a joke this whole thing turned out to be

[MTK]

I thought it his denial yesterday was laughable, just admit it and move on

FOXNews.com - Why we should not take Cushing's word

[skinsfan69]

see that what bothers me...the lying. most people really don't care when it comes to football. if orakpo is shooting 1000mg of test in his ass a week i really don't care. just sack the qb. if you're not cheating you're not trying.

[over the mountain]

the PED use bothers me.

But the lying and half-truths are what pisses me off.

During spygate, belicheck said they "had a different interpretation of the rules" excuse. trying to politic the situation is insulting and not honorable.

Cush said that "a couple of medical sources" indicated that tumors can cause his low levels and that he played the past season thinking he had tumor(s) and that it could be his last season or even year of life. Either that or intake of a substance.

Really? a couple of medical sources? what, webmd? you didnt get it checked out by a doctor? did a doctor tell you you had tumor(s)?

arent tumors pretty easy to detect? why did an NFL athlete play thinking this might be his last year of life without going through testing to find the tumor?

If he had a tumor, wouldnt the subsequent 19 tests he took also fail b/c of the tumor? what? you had a tumor that caused 1 false positive but for some miraculous reason it didnt cause anymore false positives but the tumor was never treated or even detected?

He said "i am very concerned about my health" and why he got the false positive. really?

you thought you could die in a year b/c of a tumor yet if it was suspected you had a tumor, im pretty sure any hospital in the country could find out for you after a couple of tests. so you thought you were dying for a whole year but didnt bother to get anything checked out?

just say what happened. if you did it, ok we understand, dont do it again and lets move on. but claiming he is a medical mystery is a joke. the tumor excuse he just tossed out there with no evidence he had one, indeed if he thought he had one, he would have known one way or the other in weeks not 9 months and counting.

i hate men who hide behind plausible deniability and refute everything. be a man. this is football. its man business. your not some 70 year old jerk politician from massacheuts who is a snake in a suit, your a man, act like one or get treated like a child.

[SmootSmack]

Yeah the whole tumor excuse was pretty ridiculous. I thought I might have a lethal tumor...so the best solution I figured was just to go out there every Sunday and ball! Sorry, but if you think you're potentially dying of a serious tumor and you pass on getting that checked so you can just play football...then your priorities are out of whack

[wilsowilso]

Oh man this guy is a moron!

The only people who are going to believe him now are 12 year old Texan fanboys.

That excuse is clown shoes.

[over the mountain]

like a sports analyst/report said (i forget maybe tony k), he should have had a team of doctors there explaining things and putting forth some evidence as well as his own statements. if indeed a team of doctors ever were consulted in the first place.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

the PED use bothers me.

But the lying and half-truths are what pisses me off.

During spygate, belicheck said they "had a different interpretation of the rules" excuse. trying to politic the situation is insulting and not honorable.

Cush said that "a couple of medical sources" indicated that tumors can cause his low levels and that he played the past season thinking he had tumor(s) and that it could be his last season or even year of life. Either that or intake of a substance.

Really? a couple of medical sources? what, webmd? you didnt get it checked out by a doctor? did a doctor tell you you had tumor(s)?

arent tumors pretty easy to detect? why did an NFL athlete play thinking this might be his last year of life without going through testing to find the tumor?

If he had a tumor, wouldnt the subsequent 19 tests he took also fail b/c of the tumor? what? you had a tumor that caused 1 false positive but for some miraculous reason it didnt cause anymore false positives but the tumor was never treated or even detected?

He said "i am very concerned about my health" and why he got the false positive. really?

you thought you could die in a year b/c of a tumor yet if it was suspected you had a tumor, im pretty sure any hospital in the country could find out for you after a couple of tests. so you thought you were dying for a whole year but didnt bother to get anything checked out?

just say what happened. if you did it, ok we understand, dont do it again and lets move on. but claiming he is a medical mystery is a joke. the tumor excuse he just tossed out there with no evidence he had one, indeed if he thought he had one, he would have known one way or the other in weeks not 9 months and counting.

i hate men who hide behind plausible deniability and refute everything. be a man. this is football. its man business. your not some 70 year old jerk politician from massacheuts who is a snake in a suit, your a man, act like one or get treated like a child.

Exactly. The guy is a straight up liar. I've got zero respect for the guy.

[Defensewins]

IMO the use of steroids or any illegal performance enhancing substances in any sport is extremely serious. It ranks as bad as game fixing. Sports leagues are not taking it seriously enough.
The punishment for positive tests is not harsh enough, it does not serve as a deterrent.
NFL's four to six games suspension is a slap on the wrist.
First positive test should be a full year suspension. Second positive and you are out of the league for good. This should carry over from college to the pros. In other words if a college football player tests positive in college that strike should be carried over to NFL.
The slap on the wrist thing is not working.