Hollis Thomas...

Messages
27,093
Reaction score
0
Mickey Spagnola on DallasCowboys.com actually was going over that situation on Talkin' Cowboys this morning.... Thomas just got caught using roids'....
 

Iago33

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,540
Reaction score
1,376
I never understood why anyone bought that story in the first place. Come on!
 

JJB500

Active Member
Messages
391
Reaction score
84
Yeah just like Merriman getting suspended for a banded substance in the "protein powder" he was taking!
 

sonnyboy

Benched
Messages
7,357
Reaction score
0
Someone want to go to a Saints board and post this with the header: READ IT AND WEEP!
 

GeauX

New Member
Messages
19
Reaction score
0
Some choose to do blow all over town over and over again, others take the "lemme smuggle 600 lbs. of grass in my car" routine, and then there are those who do steroids...may they all pay.
 

Chocolate Lab

Run-loving Dino
Messages
37,097
Reaction score
11,410
Yep, the host on WWL was saying last night that Thomas got busted for Clenbuterol, *not* anything in his asthma medication, and that Saints fans should forget any talk of him being wrongly accused.
 

5Stars

Here comes the Sun...
Messages
37,845
Reaction score
16,867
CowboysZone LOYAL Fan
I cannot read the article...you have to register...!
 

j_welcome

New Member
Messages
58
Reaction score
0
5Stars;1215786 said:
I cannot read the article...you have to register...!
Football Officials Dispute Thomas's Drug Defense




By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: December 7, 2006

Contrary to the explanation by New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Hollis Thomas that his positive drug test resulted from asthma medications, two football officials with knowledge of the case said a performance-enhancing drug was to blame.
javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.n...77,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')

Saints defensive lineman Hollis Thomas blamed his positive drug test on prescribed asthma medications.




The N.F.L. suspended Thomas for four games Tuesday for violating the league’s banned-substance policy. A drug test on Aug. 7 found clenbuterol, a banned drug that helps burn fat and promotes muscle growth, in Thomas’s body.

Thomas, a 6-foot tackle who is listed at 306 pounds and goes by the nickname Tank, has struggled with his weight and asthma for his entire career. He was traded to New Orleans in April after nine season with the Philadelphia Eagles and has flourished for the resurgent Saints, registering 3½ sacks and 43 tackles through 12 games.

The loss of Thomas, 32, comes at a crucial point for the Saints (8-4). New Orleans plays at Dallas on Sunday in a game that could help determine home-field advantage in the National Football Conference playoffs. He will miss the last four games of the regular season but will be eligible to return for the playoffs.

His agents, Michael Bauer and Ron Slavin, cited a letter used in their appeal in which the Saints’ doctor, John R. Amoss, said it was “highly plausible” that asthma medications were responsible for the presence of clenbuterol in the urine sample. In the letter, Dr. Amoss wrote that Thomas’s severe asthma required the treatment of high doses of inhaled steroids and other drugs. Dr. Amoss wrote that the combination of drugs probably produced a “false positive” result.

One football official, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the drug found in Hollis’s system could not have resulted from a combination of the medications. If the drugs that Thomas was prescribed by the team doctor were the only medications found in his system, he would have won his appeal, the official said.

N.F.L. players can seek medical exemptions after testing positive for a banned substance. If a drug has been prescribed by a doctor for a legitimate health reason, the violation can be settled and no suspension is issued.
Advair and albuterol, drugs that Thomas was taking for his asthma, are included on the N.F.L.’s list of prohibited substances. But they were not cited as violations because they were prescribed by the team doctor, the official said.

“As long as what is found in the system is what the doctor prescribed you, you are fine,” he said. “But in this case, there was something else besides what the doctor prescribed.”

The second football official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, independently confirmed what the other official said.

Drug-testing experts also questioned the team doctor’s written argument. Clenbuterol is not a steroid, but it cannot be obtained legally for human use in the United States. Only veterinarians treating horses with severe breathing problems similar to asthma can prescribe the drug.

“I have never heard the proposition put forth that this combination of drugs would produce a positive test for clenbuterol,” said Dr. Gary I. Wadler, an associate professor of medicine at New York University and an adviser for the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Clenbuterol is not more effective at treating asthma than the other medications Thomas was taking for his breathing problems, Wadler said. The drug is available for human consumption in some South American countries and has been used to increase muscle growth in show animals and athletes.
Wadler said that athletes had used clenbuterol before, most notably during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when two American shot-putters tested positive for the drug and were disqualified. The former pitcher Jason Grimsley told federal prosecutors that he used clenbuterol, human growth hormone, amphetamines and steroids during his Major League Baseball career.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Slavin, one of Thomas’s agents, said the extreme heat and humidity at the Saints’ summer training camp at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., made Thomas’s asthma worse and prompted doctors to recommend new drugs. Thomas was overweight when he arrived at minicamp in June and was still overweight when training camp began at the end of July.

In the appeal to the league, dated Nov. 17, his agents also argued that a suspension would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act because Thomas was treating “his chronic, life threatening asthma, in a contract year.”
Dr. Amoss, the team doctor and an assistant professor at Louisiana State University, declined an interview request for this article. A team spokesman also would not comment.

More than 60 active players, and about 60 players who retired or were cut before their results were determined, have tested positive since the N.F.L.’s testing for performance-enhancing drugs began in 1989. So far this year, at least five players have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
At the Eagles training facility Wednesday, Thomas’s former teammates said they were surprised and dismayed by the positive test.

“I think everyone should hold their judgment until they actually know for sure that he did something wrong,” defensive tackle Darwin Walker said. “I think he’s a good character person. I just hate to see something like that happen. To be honest with you, I should educate myself more about the steroid policy, because I don’t know much about it. I don’t know much about asthma medications either.”

Defensive tackle Sam Rayburn said he talked with Thomas and believed that he had not intentionally used a banned substance.

“Almost everything is against the rules in certain quantities,” Rayburn said. “Even caffeine is considered a performance-enhancer if it’s in a great enough quantity. You got to be careful. You can’t even drink too much Mountain Dew. The easy way to stay out of trouble is not just to take anything.”
 

SaintSand

New Member
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
FWIW, this is the position that Hollis Thomas is taking and is being backed by the doctor that prescribed his medication:

Amoss prescribed Thomas' asthma medication during training camp and wrote a letter outlining the drugs that Thomas was using for Thomas' appeal. Amoss indicated in the letter that the combination of drugs that Thomas was using, and continues to use, could result in a false positive test for clenbuterol.

http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1165479427162360.xml&coll=1

The NFL is saying that Thomas is being suspended for having clenbuterol in his system. If it is true that Thomas' medication could have caused a false positive for clenbuterol (I have no idea if it could or couldn't), then perhaps the NFL needs to look at this again. The NFL's statement to the NYT doesn't even address the possibility of a false positive. Personally, I would like to hear from some experts in the field of toxicology and get their take on whether it was possible that Thomas' medications could have caused a false positive. If they say it couldn't, then suspend him. If they say it could have caused a false positive, I don't see how the league can suspend him in good faith.
 

Aikbach

Well-Known Member
Messages
9,746
Reaction score
42
SaintSand;1215852 said:
FWIW, this is the position that Hollis Thomas is taking and is being backed by the doctor that prescribed his medication:

Amoss prescribed Thomas' asthma medication during training camp and wrote a letter outlining the drugs that Thomas was using for Thomas' appeal. Amoss indicated in the letter that the combination of drugs that Thomas was using, and continues to use, could result in a false positive test for clenbuterol.

http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1165479427162360.xml&coll=1

The NFL is saying that Thomas is being suspended for having clenbuterol in his system. If it is true that Thomas' medication could have caused a false positive for clenbuterol (I have no idea if it could or couldn't), then perhaps the NFL needs to look at this again. The NFL's statement to the NYT doesn't even address the possibility of a false positive. Personally, I would like to hear from some experts in the field of toxicology and get their take on whether it was possible that Thomas' medications could have caused a false positive. If they say it couldn't, then suspend him. If they say it could have caused a false positive, I don't see how the league can suspend him in good faith.
Yawn, Thomas and Merriman should work out during suspensions with one another. I feel many more will come over the years.
 

Derinyar

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
959
SaintSand;1215852 said:
FWIW, this is the position that Hollis Thomas is taking and is being backed by the doctor that prescribed his medication:

Amoss prescribed Thomas' asthma medication during training camp and wrote a letter outlining the drugs that Thomas was using for Thomas' appeal. Amoss indicated in the letter that the combination of drugs that Thomas was using, and continues to use, could result in a false positive test for clenbuterol.

http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1165479427162360.xml&coll=1

The NFL is saying that Thomas is being suspended for having clenbuterol in his system. If it is true that Thomas' medication could have caused a false positive for clenbuterol (I have no idea if it could or couldn't), then perhaps the NFL needs to look at this again. The NFL's statement to the NYT doesn't even address the possibility of a false positive. Personally, I would like to hear from some experts in the field of toxicology and get their take on whether it was possible that Thomas' medications could have caused a false positive. If they say it couldn't, then suspend him. If they say it could have caused a false positive, I don't see how the league can suspend him in good faith.

And if this is the case than a lot of players are going to develop asthma over this off season.

I think the NFL should and can suspend him in good faith. His doctor should have also realize that it could produce a false postive for this anabolic and probably not prescribed it for a person who is going through that testing, as it could also mask someones use of that drug.
 

speedkilz88

Well-Known Member
Messages
36,947
Reaction score
23,096
Every athlete that gets caught for steroid use always claims that its a false positive from something else they've taken, from the olympics to professional sports.

I just can't believe there is that many ignorant people out there that continue to believe them.
 

Pleading the Fif

New Member
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Derinyar;1215895 said:
And if this is the case than a lot of players are going to develop asthma over this off season.

I think the NFL should and can suspend him in good faith. His doctor should have also realize that it could produce a false postive for this anabolic and probably not prescribed it for a person who is going through that testing, as it could also mask someones use of that drug.

Clenbuterol isn't an anabolic steroid. *repeat* Clenbuterol isn't an anabolic steroid. It's a beta-2-agonist and has never been proven to have any anabolic effects in humans.
 

Aikbach

Well-Known Member
Messages
9,746
Reaction score
42
Pleading the Fif;1215941 said:
Clenbuterol isn't an anabolic steroid. *repeat* Clenbuterol isn't an anabolic steroid. It's a beta-2-agonist and has never been proven to have any anabolic effects in humans.
Whine, and moan, the rule was in place.
 
Top