Peppers tested positive for phentermine

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/5899982


Carolina Panthers star defensive end Julius Peppers, the rookie of the year to date and the NFL's sack leader, became the second player in as many weeks to get hit with a four-game suspension by the NFL for testing positive for phentermine, one of the evil twins in the dual drug fen-phen. Peppers did not test positive for ephedra as was previously reported.

Phentermine is a stimulant that has long been on the league's banned stimulant list. In this case, it was found within a prescription diet pill taken by many players around the NFL. Players who take this particular pill are often informed nothing will come up bad in any tests.

Peppers is appealing the four-game ban and while it is not yet known when the appeal will be heard, the Panthers do not want it to linger past Week 12. Should a hearing not be held by that game, Peppers suspension would carry over to next season if the suspension is upheld.

Considering the Panthers will have salary cap room from which to maneuver next season and should have a much-improved roster, losing Peppers for any period in 2003 is the last thing team brass would want.

The sad part of the entire Peppers affair is he is facing a suspension for a supplement that would provide little benefit for a player of Peppers' shape. Phentermine is used not only to lose weight but to also geek players up.

Of course, every time a player is suspended for a diet pill or another seemingly innocuous supplement, people within the league rant and rave about how unbalanced the NFL's drug policies are. Their argument lies in the fact a player such as Peppers can get hit with a four-game ban for a legal drug while players who get coked up and nailed on it a couple of times might never face suspension.

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If this had been posted on here, my bad.

 

If Peppers suspension carries over to next year, do pre-season games count or only regular season?

 

from what I understand, you are not allowed to practice or anything with the team. Would this keep him out of all of training?

 

i'm pretty sure it'll carry over. So, if they delay the appeal one more week, i would hope he would drop it. This season is a wash and i one would think it would do us alot better if he started next season instead of finishing this one.

 

I look for him to be a mad man this weekend.... he wants that sack count up... up... up...

 

Preseason doesn't count as games suspended, but I'm not sure how mini-camp would be handled. My guess is he wouldn't be allowed to participate with the team starting from the frist week of practice prior to the start of the season until his suspension is up.

I still think he has a shot at the sack record. Missing games this season would end that hope. He's up to 14 and he's had 2 "3-sack" games. The record is 22 right? How many did Strahan have at 10 games? How sweet would it be for the record holder to be in Sapps division? Too sweet I say.

 

Doesn’t Peppers have 11 sacks right now? Anyway, it may not matter. I have always hated it when people do the “I told you so” thing. I’m about to do it myDAMNself.
I saw Freeney play in Syracuse last year and when the Colts (Dungy) drafted him I remember telling people Freeney is going to get the defensive rook award in Dungys system. Here he comes ---

http://espn.go.com/nfl/rookie2002/week11.html

7 sacks and 4 forced fumbles and he was just being used on passing downs . . . He’s starting now.
Sorry JP, but he might get the ROY with or without the suspension. Oh well, what’s a measly 100k to a millionaire?

 

batgrafix wrote,

I think the difference is in the fact that league officials consider effedra a performance enhancing drug whereas cocaine is a social drug. It seems they are much more concerned with an equal playing field during the game than the unfortunate things some players get involved with off the field.

 

Not really. The benifits are minimal, and very temporary. Buckner, for example, gets no competitive advantage by taking a stimulant in training camp. They take these substances to burn fat, and their are legal fat burners out there. The problem is these substances are not regulated in any way, and if a supplement has a derivative in it, the manufacturer does not have advertize that the substance is effedra based.

The real reason they are banned is there is some evidence that unmonitored use of these regulated substances are harmful (see Korey Stringer). Its not conclusive evidence though.

I like Upshaw's idea of having the league supply dietary supplements. They can test to see if the supplements have the banned substances before distributing them to the plaeyrs.

 

Peppers has 11 sacks and draws double and triple teams every down. Freeny has 7 sacks coming in on third downs and hasn't drawn near the attention Peppers has. Teams game plan against Peppers. When he draws a double or triple team that allows Ruckers or someone else a shot at the QB. So, actually he is responsible for freeing up the rest of the defense. Peppers is without question the most dominate rookie in the league. The only rookie that is close is Harrington.