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21 Sep 2010

Texans LT Duane Brown Suspended Four Games

Adam Caplan reports on Twitter that Texans tackle Duane Brown has been suspended for four games by the NFL.

Posted by: Bill Barnwell on 21 Sep 2010

16 comments, Last at 24 Sep 2010, 6:06am by Mr Shush

Comments

1
by MCS :: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 4:19pm

From same feed: NFL confirms Duane Brown suspended without pay for four games for violating the NFL policy on performance enhancing substances.

2
by Overrated (not verified) :: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 4:25pm

My texans are turning into the saints or something.

3
by ChrisZ (not verified) :: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 4:34pm

Another one of our athletes overworking themselves!

5
by chemical burn :: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 5:04pm

Seriously, though, at what point does this become something fishy in the Texans locker room and not just cases of individual athletes? Just asking...

6
by ChrisZ (not verified) :: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 5:10pm

When there's evidence that there's something fishy in the Texans' locker room? Two people on a squad doesn't seem terribly fishy to me. Certainly it seems reasonable to expect that there would be teams with more than one person juicing even if they hadn't conspired together. If I were to make a guess, I would guess that every locker room has at least two guys in it on PEDs.

7
by WhatWeReallyThink (not verified) :: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 5:36pm

The only things that is fishy is how bad HOU is at hiding it. Wait, what...?

grarda placentula (placentula, is that a placenta with 8 legs?)

9
by Ambientdonkey :: Wed, 09/22/2010 - 6:22am

My purely speculative guess on the number of players in the average NFL locker room using PEDs is somewhere in the 50-53 range. So I wouldn't call 2 players getting caught fishy at all, more like regression toward the mean.

11
by BJR :: Wed, 09/22/2010 - 4:24pm

Yeah, I mean assuming that some benefits are derived from using PEDs, surely if one or two players are using then others are almost obliged to follow if they want to compete on a level playing field? In the end nobody is any better off, but if everyone is clean then there will always be the incentive for somebody to cheat. So the only equilibrium status is for everyone to cheat.

Of course the way to prevent this would be to test rigourously, and punish severely. I don't really know how rigourously the NFL tests its players, but they certainly don't seem too interested in severely punishing the ones they catch.

12
by tuluse :: Wed, 09/22/2010 - 5:16pm

Caught once = 4 game suspension, twice = year suspension, thrice = lifetime suspension.

That seems severe enough to me.

13
by Mr Shush :: Wed, 09/22/2010 - 11:34pm

I think the scale of punishments is fine; problem is that I suspect the tests don't really work well enough to catch a large proportion of users even if the regime were more rigourous. There really probably isn't a solution.

4
by The Ninjalectual :: Tue, 09/21/2010 - 4:36pm

Great. This happens this week. Why couldn't he have been suspended a week ago before playing the Redskins? No wonder the Texans won, since their left tackle was cheating!

8
by Joe T. :: Wed, 09/22/2010 - 12:04am

I thought the same thing initially, but then realized that the Redskins probably would have found some other way to lose that game.

10
by Admore :: Wed, 09/22/2010 - 2:13pm

Easterbrook would be so proud!

15
by The Ninjalectual :: Fri, 09/24/2010 - 12:04am

*caught* cheating. The Redskins players who were cheating too haven't been caught yet, so that is much different ;)

14
by Bobman :: Thu, 09/23/2010 - 5:47pm

Or two weeks ago! Not that Schaub threw that many passes, but maybe the run game is slowed and Freeney starts his hittin' and strippin' routine a week early....

Oh well.

Actually, I'm pretty happy they didn't let him go a whole season like they did Cushing. (unless he failed the test last December....)

16
by Mr Shush :: Fri, 09/24/2010 - 6:06am

Indications seem to be that the team knew about the coming suspension some time in August, when they brought Ephraim Salaam and Charles Spencer in for a workout. They've now added Salaam to resume his role as the swing tackle while Butler starts.