Can we designate this the Shawne 'Lights Out/Dope Up' Merriman Rule????

FYI:

The US Olympic Committee tested 168 over-the-counter suppliments and found the same steriod Merriman was "convicted" of in 48 samples.

Granted, he is responsible for what he puts in his body and he should have stuck with the suppliments on the NFL Players Association list, but it IS possible he was telling the truth when he said he didn't take steroids on purpose.

Anybody buying these suppliments over-the-counter could be taking steroids and not even know it.

I hate to advocate government oversight (we get enough of that already) but it could be time the suppliment industry gets regulated (I hate that word).

The supplement industry should be regulated as first and foremost it is selling a bunch of lies with no clue as to side effects or what your are putting in your body to attain it. in the case of the NFL it is good that the union and the league work well together.

Everyone fixates on baseball and cycling, but I never understood how the sport with the friggin' hugest dudes on the planet does not have people failing tests left and right. You can't possibly take NFL drug testing seriously.

In baseball when someone tests positive, he gets run out of town. In the NFL, he gets player of the year.

What RobGreg says.

FDA says supplements are "food" and not subject to the same tests drugs are. But the Dept. Of Agriculture says they are "drugs" so food stamps won't pay for them. Kafka must be a Federal Employee.

Trying to ban substances that are available over-the-counter is insanity in action. One day some "Approved" supplement is going to change it's formulation without telling anyone and a ton of positive tests are going to happen as a result. When they give the players a pass, then you are going to have people start taking the subsance on purpose planing to blame any positive test results on the boogie man.

Then you won't be able to tell the starred-bellied sneeches from the unstarred ones.

Many props to JoeCritter for the Dr. Suess reference. The thing to remember is these guys are professional athletes in a billion dollar business. Do you believe for an instant that the players don't know that OTC supplements can be a problem? Every team in the league has a person who is responsible for making sure that their players get supplements that are both legal and approved on the one hand, and avoid problematic OTC substances on the other. Merriman's excuse is analogous to a guy who gets food from the finest five star restaurants paid for and delivered to his room by his employer complaining that he got food poisoning from the greasy spoon on the other side of town.

And now football fans, here's our Walgreens Drug Test Report.

@TJohn

The supplement guru on the team is likely fighting a losing battle... trying to figure out which supplements are "safe" based off of (likely inaccurate) self-reported ingredients.

I'd bet the "Safe" list is rather small, the list of known "bad" supplmentsis probably larger, but then there's the vast wasteland of supplements of unknown safety.

The smart thing to do would be to avoid these supplements but in a highly competitive environment like professional sports and the decision maing ability of young adults (Merriman's what, 24?), it probably looks more like an opportunity to gain an edge on the field than a threat to their good name.

The NFL issues a list every year of what supplements are approved. If you go somewhere like GNC you may pick up a bottle which says "NFL Approved". Unless some meathead can't read, there's no excuse for taking any supplement that hasn't been approved by the NFL. The NFL may not catch everyone, but they do take a lot of steps to avoid the "but I had no idea!" plea