NFL Starcaps Six, Are You Serious?

Another day, another new feature on this here sports and every once in a while entertainment blog. I got the name for this website when one of my best friends suggested that maybe my version of the Jim Rome take could be found in my penchant for saying “are you serious?” far too often for any sane person. We talk a lot, play video games together, share life stories, walks on the beach (OK not that), and one of the constants is that anytime something happens that I don’t like, I tend to respond with some version of “seriously?”, or the aforementioned “are you serious?”

There are too many examples to bother listing, but highlights include some of the following. Dying in an online game of Call of Duty 4 followed by me yelling “seriously?”, another team scoring a goal on us in our NHL 09 hockey league, usually greeted with “are you serious? There is no way that bullshit goal goes in!” I frequently will say “seriously?” every time another team scores on us in NBA Live 09, and the rare time a woman rejects me out at a bar is almost always greeted by a disbelieving “are you serious?”. Anyways, you get the idea.

So once my friends brilliant idea spawned the name for this website and he suggested that it could be daily “Rome take”, I decided to make the “Are you serious?” a daily feature. So, each and every day, except for holidays I choose to celebrate, birthdays for important people and attractive women, days when I don’t feel like updating, and any other excuse I can find, we will feature one or more people deserving of having the all important question asked- are you serious?

Our first entry into this dubious club? The NFL Starcaps Six. As I mentioned earlier today, six players, Saints running back Deuce McAllister, Saints defensive end Charles Grant, Saints defensive end Will Smith, Vikings defensive tackle Kevin Williams, Vikings defensive tackle Pat Williams, and Texans long snapper Bryan Pittman, were suspended by the NFL for violating the league’s policy regarding anabolic steriods and other banned substances.

In this instance, the other banned substance was Bumetanide, a drug available by prescription only that happens to be found in the readily available (well, not any more) Starcaps pills. The Bumetanide is some form of diuretic, and the use of diuretics and water pills are a big no-no to the NFL, as both can be used as masking agents for steroids and narcotics. The players claimed that there was no way to know that the Bumetanide was in the Starcaps, and that worse, the NFL’s doctors knew about it but failed to notify all players pro-actively to make sure they didn’t take the tainted supplement. The NFL denies the claim, of course, and points out that:

“With respect to the question of whether a specific warning should have been given regarding Star Caps, the policy does not set forth an obligation to issue specific warnings about specific products and no testimony suggests that the NFL and NFLPA have ever contemplated imposing such a requirement on Dr. Lombardo, who oversees the development of education materials on steroids…”

Look, this is pretty simple. I am sure the players got a little screwed here. The NFL has become strict and unmoving in punishing infractions of the steroids and banned substances policy, as well as personal conduct issues both on and off the field (unless you have to be Minnesota Viking’s defensive end Jared Allen; then you can purposefully try to tear up quarterback’s knees with a slap on the wrist), and they would have looked like they were making an exception if they had let these six players off the hook.

If the NFL knew the product contained a banned substance, they should have issued a blanket statement to all players notifying them of this, period. If they didn’t, they share at least some liability for not keeping their players, their product, as informed as possible. The players had their own responsibility to stay away from any product, no matter how benign, that might contain a banned substance so that they didn’t put themselves in this situation to begin with. All players know that diuretics and water pills are banned, and most players who have weight-related bonus clauses in their contracts also have provisions that strictly prohibit them from using any such supplement to reach their target weight.

Both sides may have screwed up here, but the ultimate responsibility for taking a tainted supplement lies with the player, and they obviously failed to show significant evidence of fraud to lead the NFL to believe that they were deliberately misled as to the contents of the supplement. So for putting themselves in a position to be suspended, and in the case of Minnesota’s Pat and Kevin Williams possibly dealing a crippling blow to their team’s playoff hopes, I can only ask- are you serious?