Williams¿ Trial: Other Players Were Not Suspended

MINNEAPOLIS - The NFL attorney who oversees the league’s drug testing policy testified that there were several NFL players who were not disciplined for testing positive to the same diuretic that Vikings Pat and Kevin Williams tested for in 2006.

In the Williams’ cases, their positive tests for the diuretic Bumetanide drew them both a four game suspension. Bumetanide is recognized by both the NFL and the NFL Players Association as a banned substance because it masks the use of steroids in the body. The suspensions were blocked by the courts pending the outcome of the Williams’ lawsuit.

In testimony, NFL Vice President for Law and Labor Policy, Alphonso Birch testified that he knew of two players in 2006 and another player in 2007 who tested positive for Bumetadine. Birch was not aware if the players had a therapeutic exemption. The testimony is important for the Williams’ case because it gets to the heat of part of their argument that the NFL drug policy was not consistently applied and that both players were arbitrarily disciplined by the league.

Both Pat and Kevin Williams admit to taking the weight loss supplement called StarCaps during the summer of 2008. Birch testified that he knew as early as the fall of 2006 that StarCaps contained Bumetanide. He said the independent administrator of the NLF’s drug testing program, Dr. John Lombardo approached him about the presence of Bumetadine in StarCaps and the possible referral of their findings to the Federal Drug Administration.

On December 19, 2006, Birch sent a memo to the NFL Players Association advising them that the makers of StarCaps, Balanced Health Products was being added to its list of banned manufacturers. A day later, the players’ union forwarded the information to all player representatives and agents adding the additional warning that no player was to endorse any products made by Balanced Health, nor were they to use those products.

However, the agents representing both Pat and Kevin Williams testified today they never got the memo. Tom Condon, the agent for Kevin Williams said he eventually found the memo in his junk mail filter long after Williams tested positive for Bumetanide and initiated the lawsuit against the NFL.

On the stand both of the players testified that they never knew about the presence of a banned substance in StarCaps and had they known they never would have used the product.