Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman continues to wait for the ruling on his appeal of a four-game suspension for a violation of the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
It’s been over a month since it was first reported that Sherman and teammate Brandon Browner were facing suspensions for testing positive for a banned substance. Browner dropped his appeal and will be eligible to return for the playoffs, but Sherman has continued to fight his positive test.
Even if the decision (expected on Thursday) goes against Sherman and he is suspended by the league, he plans on continuing his fight. Sherman said Wednesday that he will continue to explore other legal options and could ultimately end up suing the league.
“I can’t get back playing regardless. I can just sue the league, and that’s probably what I’m going to do if they suspend me,’” Sherman said.
Adam Schefter of ESPN has reported that Sherman’s appeal was based around a supposed break in procedure in the collection process. The cup used to collect Sherman’s urine sample was apparently broken, requiring a second cup to be placed underneath to prevent leakage. The seal on the second cup was also broken.
Sherman tweeted on Christmas some more thoughts on the basis of his appeal to the league.
“Hoping we play in a just League @nfl. Not a league that allows a tester to mix urine samples. A tester with a history of errors. Has has had to have 6 other tests thrown out and he has only been testing 6months,” he tweeted.
Sherman was also asked Wednesday about his thoughts on how the appeal has played out to this point.
“It’s been pretty standard other than the league telling you they can break rules,” Sherman said. “They don’t care if you took it or you didn’t take it, if the sample is tainted or it isn’t tainted, they said it doesn’t matter. The collective bargaining, there’s policies, there’s rules in the policies that they said should not apply to them and they wrote them. That’s just how the league does things.”
With the track record of PED suspensions being overturned, it appears likely that Sherman will be suspended on Thursday. While he won’t have a recourse to get the four games back, Sherman appears adamant in continuing this fight in whatever fashion he has to.
If he’s suspended, Seattle could get Sherman back in time for the Super Bowl if they play in the first round of the playoffs. If they manage to backdoor into the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye with San Francisco and Green Bay losses this weekend, Sherman’s season would be over.