Of Grady Jackson And The Water Pill Fiasco

by Dave Choate on Oct 30, 2008 8:00 AM EDT in Editorial

I had to write about something other than our offensive line before my head exploded, so here we are.

Many of us have jumped on Grady Jackson for the water pill fiasco, with its connotations of steroid use. It's not just because he's an easy target (hey-oh!) that we've been tempted to do so. There's something about the way these issues are tackled by the media, the league and fans that lends instant weight to any steroid rumors. It's easy to assume that Grady Jackson is guilty of something, whatever it may be.

Yet Sports Illustrated's Ross Tucker says the underlying reason for the use of the water pills is why the league finds itself in this situation in the first place. You see, teams fine their players if they don't make weight, with the 2008 recommended fine an incredible $431 per pound overweight. For someone like Grady Jackson, that's literally millions of dollars!

Worse for players still is that they are considered solely responsible for what goes into their bodies. If, hypothetically, a guy took a supplement purely to lose weight and later found out it contained things that were not on the label, he would have literally no recourse with the league. The end result is that a player could be stuck between public opinion, the need to lose weight and steroid issues, with no way to collect the shards of his former reputation.

I don't know if that's the case here, but that would really suck, wouldn't it?

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Comments

Not much sympathy here

Agreed that the player is screwed if they find out they took a banned substance after the fact, but it’s still their responsibility under the rules. If a grown man making hundreds of thousands of $ can’t control his weight, whose fault is that?

Mushy sentimentality aside, there should be an appeals procedure for the scenario you outlined. Fair is fair. Whether that’s something that has to wait for the new CBA is above my pay grade.

"There's no such word as 'quit' in swamp buggy racing, Marigold"

by tom slick on Oct 30, 2008 5:01 PM EDT reply actions