No, we *want* you to die on the field

Get this, the NFL suspended the Saints run stopper, Hollis Thomas, for 4 games for using an asthma inhaler. He never hid this from anyone, and had doctors testify how it was medically necessary.

This is garbage, and should immediately be overturned.

NFL: not the "no fun league"; the "never fucking live" league.

Update: Hollis speaks

Comments

[TravelingMermaid]

THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!

[Michelle]

I am steaming over here about this. Ridiculous. Can you believe they had time to think about this???

[saintseester]

So why now? If he hasn't been hiding it? It smacks of conspiracy - as in they don't want the Saints to win their next 4 games. So they take away part of our critical defense.

[ashley]

Supposedly, this came down a while back, and the Saints appealed it. Hollis could continue playing during the appeal.

The NFL denied the appeal.

[saintseester]

I sent a letter of protest to the NFL and a copy to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. I also emailed the AAFA the following message. It can't hurt:

Today, Hollis Thomas, a New Orleans Saints player, was suspended by the NFL for testing positive for steroids. He uses an inhaled steroid to treat his asthma that his doctors have testified is medically necessary.

I believe this action indicates a lack of knowledge and understanding on the part of the NFL. It sends a very strong signal to young athletes that they should risk death on the field rather than treating their asthma with safe and LEGAL drugs.

I have written a letter of protest to the NFL. I also hope that your organization perhaps could educate them on asthma and asthma treatment.

[gentilly rick]

there is no fucking way this can stand unless there is more to it.

i will go apeshit if the only steroid is the inhaler.

fucking no fun league beat the rico act but there is no way in hell they can beat the americans with disabilitys act.

so i guess they are scared of a gimp like the golfer guy who had to use a golf cart to play golf profesionally?

fuck this. if it's the inhaler only i swear i will go apeshit.

nagin and jefferson just got a break from my wrath.

where is paul taglibue?

[jeffrey]

I think the asthma defense is a ruse. First of all, there is a difference between the anabolic steroids used for performance enhancement... which the NFL tests for... and the kinds of steroids you find in asthma inhalants.

Second, you're right that this has been on appeal for a while now. Thomas..and his agent obviously knew that a ruling was coming soon. That's why we got an asthma-centric puff piece on H.T. in the paper about a week ago.

[ashley]

Supposedly, the substance he tested positive for is to help weight gain. Obviously, Hollis don't need dat. He addresses this in the video.

[jeffrey]

Sorry. Not buying it. Eh I just turned this into a post.

[Aaron]

Jeff, when you have the team doctor, also a faculty doctor, acting on Hollis' behalf and putting his own medical reputation on the line, and swearing the specifics of his prescribed medication, you can go and buy yourself a shit sandwich if it makes you feel better. I don't "buy" this, I believe it, because of the reputable sources and the information presented is factual and supported by evidence.

[hammhawk]

This is absolutely bullshit. Hainesworth gets 5 games for scraping his cleats on the face of an opponent, and Thomas gets 4 for asthma meds? The league said that Advair (which I take, and I can tell you I have no performance to enhance) contains a banned substance, but I don't see why they can't separate it out from something he'd take for illicit purposes. Most docs wouldn't be willing to say the guy needs it if he didn't. Let an independent doc check him out and vouch for it.
I say Jerry Jones put them up to it. Boy are we going to need Colston and Horn in this one. Any idea whether they'll play?

[jeffrey]

Aaron,

The doctor's statement reads like an equivocating purposefully obscurred bullshit job. He lists a series of subtances which appear in Thomas's medication, notes that Thomas tested positive for something different from those substances and then writes this sentence, "The POSSIBILITY of a false-positive test in this case WOULD APPEAR to be highly PLAUSIBLE." Doesn't that read to you like a man not entirely convinced of his own questionable logic? You're right about one thing. I'd say the man's reputation is indeed brought into question by this.

[Aaron]

So you think someone who spent a minimum of 8 years in school, 4 more years getting accredited and probably dozens of years practicing to get to the point of being a team doctor for the Saints, and the NFL teams get the best doctors in the area, is going to waste his ENTIRE reputation so that a tackle is not ineligible for one month? Really? Honestly, that reflects worse on you for believing it.

[jeffrey]

Buddy, I'm not the only one asking wondering about this anymore. In today's T-P, John DeShazier asks a few simple questions about the team's and the doctor's role in flaunting NFL rules.

I'll add only that if you make it a matter of course to blindly accept the "authority" of your supposed social betters even when they write in blatant bullshit-speak then that doesn't reflect to well on you for believing it.

[jeffrey]

Aargh I get all indignant and then misspell "too" We're back to things that reflect poorly on me I guess.

[ashley]

Hmmmmm...this presents a different story: http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1165479427162360.xml&coll=1