Dolphins defensive end Dion Jordan issued a statement on Wednesday that expresses regret for his one-year suspension from the NFL, based on his latest violation of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. The statement, though mainly contrite, nevertheless tried to downplay the violation that triggered the one-year suspension.
“Because of past positive tests and my status in the drug program, the consequence of dilute (not positive) tests is severe,” Jordan said in his statement.
But a dilute test is a positive test, under the plain language of the substance-abuse policy: “A Player who fails to cooperate fully in the Testing process as determined by the Medical Advisor or provides a dilute specimen will be treated as having a Positive Test Result.”
A dilute sample amounts to a positive test because the NFL and NFL Players Association jointly have agreed that a sample with a “specific gravity value less than 1.003 and a creatinine concentration of less than 20 mg/dL” necessarily is the result of a player who has tried to obscure a positive test by consuming large amounts of water prior to the test. Below the agreed levels, then, the NFL and the NFLPA presume that a deliberate attempt to beat the test has occurred.
For a guy with a history of positive tests and at least one suspension, it’s not unreasonable to think he may have decided to avoid yet another positive by guzzling a large amount of water before his test. Regardless of Jordan’s actual intent, the dilute sample necessarily is a positive test -- because the union that distributed the statement in which Jordan explains it wasn’t a positive agreed long ago that it was.