The Latest NFL Suspensions Due To Drug Tests

Drug test results are big news in the athletic world right now. A lot of big boys in various sports are having to take their medicine because of something else they swallowed.

The news hasn’t rocked their various sports worlds; on the contrary, the NFL has responded to a spate of positive drug tests by tightening regulations recently, prompting what some might call a harsh response to some bad choices; what others would say is justice overdue.

NFL Bad Boys

Two high-profile sportsmen are in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, Le’Veon Bell of the Steelers and Arthur Jones from the Colts. These well-paid individuals took risks with their careers by ingesting banned substances and are now paying the penalty with a 4-game suspension each.

With all the money they make, audiences might wonder why they need to ingest drugs in order to improve performance instead of working with personal trainers. Presumably, it’s the money that motivates them to look beyond legal boundaries; money that’s worth the chances they take with their careers and their lives.

Tale of Two Drug Tests

In fact, this has to do with more than two tests. Le’Veon Bell is in trouble for missing several tests paired with a reputation for having tested positive in the past. Arthur Jones tested positive for the first time in his career, but that has not stopped him from falling foul of regulators who recently decided that one positive test was enough for a 4-game suspension.

Affecting Careers

News reports regarding these incidents point out that, while suspension has hit the two men hard, their behavior has provided the catalyst for progress. The Colts might use this as their incentive to hire someone else in his place.

Bell’s absence gives other players a chance to join the first-team squad and make a name for themselves. Even on the team there is plenty of competition for those juicy spots and the pay checks that go with them.

Rules about PEDs, Banned Substances and Drugs

Marijuana is a banned substance, yet it isn’t generally thought of as “performance-enhancing.” Startlingly, studies show that some athletes perform better after consuming weed if they consume just enough and not too much.

Recent regulations do not permit any marijuana to be found in a sports professional’s test results. If this is for the same reason as fighting sports, then it is because it is considered a painkiller, and that they state an athlete could get injured worse, due to not feeling any pain.

Performance enhancers include steroids to increase muscle production, stimulants which encourage short-term energy production, and HCG for increased muscle growth. Athletes even turn to blood doping, thereby increasing the supply of red blood cells to increase the amount of oxygen moving around their bodies. This requires a transfusion of one’s own blood directly before a game or a race.

Athletes don’t just lose their careers when they take PEDs. Some of them have died. Other substances regulatory organizations look out for mask signs of drug use or cause excessive urination so as to eliminate them rapidly. Diuretics and masking substances are also banned. What if someone won’t go through with a scheduled or random test so as to be sure of not testing positive?

This looks very bad indeed. The only way to avoid a positive drug test is to either stay away from banned substances, or look into information about how to pass your drug test if you’re stuck in this situation after finding out you have something in your system that may cause you to fail.

Jake Hansen

About 

Jake is a marijuana advocate and voice of the people who are for the legalization of marijuana. As the webmaster, all views, opinions, and reviews on this website are based on his personal experiences. He hopes to educate people as well as help them find the best methods to pass drug tests.