The NFL has announced that Redskins defensive end Jarvis Jenkins has been suspended four games for violating the league’s policy regarding performance-enhancing substances.
He’ll be permitted to participate in training camp and the preseason. He’ll then be gone until Monday, September 30.
The Redskins have released a statement from Jenkins in which he attempts to undermine the notion that he cheated.
“When I learned that I tested positive for a substance that is banned under the NFL policy, I was shocked and confused,” Jenkins said. “It’s an obscure substance that I’ve never even heard of, and I still don’t know how it got into my body. My only guess is that it came from one of the supplements I was taking around the time of the test, even though none of them listed anything banned.”
Players are responsible for whatever is in their bodies, so it doesn’t matter. The league has an approved list of supplements that do not contain banned substances. If a guy goes off that list, he does so at his own risk.
And nothing he says — whether it’s “I’m shocked and confused” or “I had a prescription” or “the supplement was spiked” or “my dog ate my homework then peed in my sample cup” or anything aimed at making him look like something other than a cheater — changes the fact that, whether he knew it or not, he was indeed cheating.
We just wish one of the players who is caught cheating would simply admit to it, instead of trying to downplay it.