Cincinnati's Antwan Odom has been suspended for four games by the NFL for violating the league's performance-enhancing substance policy.
Bengals man handed four-game ban for failing drugs test
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom has been suspended for four games by the NFL for violating the league's performance-enhancing substance policy.
The 29-year-old was originally suspended before the start of the season but had appealed in the hope of having the ban reduced or even rubbed out, but his appeal has been rejected by the NFL.
Odom's ban has been upheld at four games, and he will now not be eligible to play for the Bengals until their home clash with the Buffalo Bills on November 21.
He will also lose $1.2 million in earnings during his suspension, despite his lawyer David Cronwell insisting he only failed a drugs test after mistakenly taking a weight loss pill belonging to his wife.
"Antwan did not take a steroid or any other performance enhancing substance," said Cronwell.
Mistake
"While driving after midnight from Alabama to Cincinnati to report to training camp, Antwan's wife mistakenly opened her prescription pill bottle instead of Antwan's and gave him one of her prescription weight loss pills instead of Antwan's medicine. Naturally, Antwan's pre-season urine test was positive for his wife's medicine.
"The NFL did not dispute the facts in this case and accepted the Cincinnati Bengals' weight records showing that Antwan's target reporting weight was 275 lbs. And that he actually reported at 255 lbs., confirming that Antwan had no reason to take a weight loss medicine.
"The steroid program's administrator, Dr. John Lombardo, testified that no competitive advantage was gained by this mistake and that no physical difference would be apparent to Antwan from taking his wife's medicine as opposed to his own.
"Harold Henderson, the hearing officer designated by Commissioner Goodell to hear Antwan's appeal, found 'credible and convincing evidence that Mr. Odom inadvertently took medicine prescribed for his wife,' yet, Mr. Henderson concluded that as 'sympathetic as this case may be' and though a four game suspension may be 'unfairly harsh,' he lacked the authority to alter the discipline."
Odom led the Bengals with eight sacks last season despite playing in just six games because of injury, and was already struggling with a knee injury.
Ownes fine
Team-mate Terrell Owens has also been on the wrong side of the NFL disciplinary process after he was fined $5,000 for using Twitter just before a game.
The controversial wide receiver tweeted an hour before Cincinnati's defeat against Tampa Bay last Sunday, when league rules state no social media can be used 90 minutes before kick-off.
Owens and his receiving partner in crime Chad Ochocinco are the only players, along with Arizona's Darnell Docket, to have fallen foul of the league rule.
