Per Twitter: cushing suspended

[Gzus]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8180cb8d&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing was voted NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year at the end of the 2009 season -- part of The Associated Press' annual awards honoring outstanding on-field performance.

However, as a result of Cushing's violation of the NFL's performance-enhancing drug policy and his admission that he took a "nonsteroidal" banned substance, AP is conducting a revote for defensive rookie and All-Pro outside linebacker honors.

Cushing was a runaway winner for the defensive rookie award in balloting by a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league. He received 39 votes, easily beating Buffalo Bills safety Jairus Byrd, who had six.

I hope they take it away. Byrd is the next closest so it makes sense to give it to him.

 

[joseephuss]

Cushing's agent and handlers knew this was coming. Apparently he had been doing a lot of interviews lately and other public appearances prior to the news of his suspension being released. An attempt to humanize him and make him appear to be a nice guy.

 

[Alexander]

Cushing tested positive for same substance as Manny Ramirez

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 11, 2010 9:34 AM ET
Although neither Texans linebacker Brian Cushing nor anyone associated with the NFL has said what, exactly, Cushing took to trigger a positive performance-enhancing drug test, a new report says he tested positive for human Chorionic Gonadotropin, or hCG.

That's the same substance that got Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers suspended for 50 games during the 2009 Major League Baseball season, although Ramirez was reportedly suspended for receiving an hCG prescription, not testing positive for it.

Adam Schefter of ESPN was the first to report, via Twitter, that Cushing tested positive for elevated levels of hCG. According to Wikipedia, hCG is commonly used during and after steroid cycles to maintain and restore testicular size as well as normal testosterone production.

Schefter also Tweeted that hCG is in seminal fluid, and slightly elevated levels can be discovered in the event that a test occurs soon after ejaculation.

So perhaps that will be Cushing's spin: He had recently ejaculated at the time he was asked for a urine sample, and that's why he came up positive. But the bottom line is simple: The league has decided that elevated levels of hCG are enough to constitute evidence of cheating, and the union has agreed. So Cushing's elevated levels of hCG were a violation of league rules, and he'll have to serve a four-game suspension because he violated those rules.
=

Interesting. I guess he could have claimed he was partying with Roethlisberger shortly before giving his sample and won his appeal.

 

[Iceman778]

amazing pictures........lol:laugh1:

 

[Alexander]

Agent claims Cushing underwent a "battery" of medical tests

Posted by Mike Florio on May 14, 2010 11:45 AM ET
On Friday, Texans linebacker Brian Cushing defended his position that he never took hCG (a steroids chaser) by claiming that he feared that he had an elevated hCG level due to the presence of one or more tumors in his body. He claimed that he spent the rest of the year fearful that it could be not only his last year in football, but also the last year of his life.

Whether and to what extent Cushing underwent testing to detect or rule out cancer wasn't developed at the press conference, possibly due to the time restriction the Texans placed on the Q&A session and possibly due to the fact that the assembled reporters were blindsided by the eyebrow-raising claim.

Since then, Cushing's agent has told John McClain of the Houston Chronicle that Cushing underwent a "battery of tests" in November, and that he has undergone further testing in Houston, San Diego, and Denver.

"He was tested for a variety of things that were recommended by his [personal] doctor," agent Tom Condon said. "My understanding is they're going to do it again. They're going to take him from head to toe and repeat everything."

Condon didn't specifically say that Cushing was tested for cancer. McClain reports, citing an unnamed person close to Cushing, that he tested negative for testicular cancer. It could be that the tests primarily were aimed at determining how Cushing could be producing enough hCG to result in a positive test, in order to keep it from happening again. (And it reportedly hasn't happened again.)

To the extent that Cushing was being extensively tested in order to ensure that he doesn't have cancer, the fact that close friends and teammates had no clue that he feared having this disease makes the situation even more confusing.

 

[joseephuss]

Tumors caused by steroid abuse.

 

[Big Dakota]

He's a lying sack of ****.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

He's a lying sack of ****.

:fact:

What a pathetic attempt at sympathy.

 

[Alexander]

Cushing's "battery of tests" was ordered by the league

Posted by Mike Florio on May 14, 2010 3:18 PM ET
When Texans linebacker Brian Cushing disclosed on Thursday that he feared his elevated hCG level was evidence of a possible tumor, he attributed that information to no specific person.

"I was either injecting [hCG] or I had a tumor, as I was told by some sources, I played the whole season thinking I had tumors," Cushing said.

So who were the "sources" who told him he "had a tumor"? Apparently, they were the NFL.

A source with knowledge of the procedure has provided us with the relevant language routinely sent by the league to a player who tests positive for hCG (and, no, Cushing isn't the first one).

"This substance is found in urine from three main sources," the letter states, "taken as a performance enhancer from an outside source, production of HCG by a tumor or produced by a pregnant woman's placenta."

And the "battery of tests" that Cushing underwent didn't flow from Cushing's personal desire to rule out cancer, but from standard league protocol when someone tests positive for hCG.

"When a player tests positive for HCG, there is a physical exam that is suggested to determine if there is a tumor producing the substance," the letter states. The league-imposed testing includes: a diagnostic imaging CT scan of the chest, MRI of the brain with attention to the pituitary, and ultrasound of the testes. Also, a variety of blood tests are performed to rule out cancer.

Cushing possibly didn't explain that the league required him to undergo the evaluation because the evaluation is part of the league's effort to rule out a source of hCG other than an external one. The testing wasn't primarily aimed at giving Cushing a clean bill of health, but at painting him deeper into a corner as someone who used hCG (unless, of course, he somehow sprouted a placenta).

As the source explained it, "A negative result from this routine medical evaluation also rules out a legitimate explanation for having hCG in his body."

That's apparently why we've yet to get the full story from Cushing. He has twisted the league's standard practices when a player tests positive for hCG into a cancer scare that (although he didn't explain it so clearly on Thursday) was quickly resolved in a way that gave him a clean bill of health -- but that confirmed he had generated a dirty urine sample for which he consistently refuses to accept responsibility.
=====

I think the best thing for Cushing to do is shut up now.

He is making himself look like even more of a lying pathetic cheat each time he decides to talk about it.

He got caught cheating. Take your medicine. Come back after the suspension a shriveled up weakling and promptly get injured. It worked for Merriman.