NFL Will Not Lift Brian Cushing’s Four-Game Suspension

Last week Texans owner Bob McNair visited with Commissioner Roger Goodell in an effort to convince him to lift the four-game suspension on LB Brian Cushing for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing drugs.

Cushing has continually denied that he took a banned substance even claiming that he had something called “overtrained athlete syndrome.”

Brian Cushing held a press conference on Thursday afternoon to explain his violation of the NFL’s performance-enhancing drugs policy that landed him a four-game suspension.

Then things got a little bizarre when he said doctors told him the way hCG could have gotten into his body is “through injection or by having a tumor.” He found out about the positive test in October and said he spent the rest of the season fearful that he might die from the possibility of having a tumor.

The AP has released a breakdown of who voted for whom in the re-vote of the rookie of the year award.

There are a few interesting notes here:

After all the debate, Texans LB Brian Cushing retained his rookie of the year award, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Associated Press voters turned in their ballots for rookie of the year a second time -- this time, though, they had full knowledge of Cushing’s violation of the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

Coming in second in the AP rookie of the year voting was Bills S Jairus Byrd. Now that the AP is conducting a redo on that vote, let’s take a look at what SB Nation’s Buffalo Rumblings has to say about Byrd’s chances of winning:

The Bills didn’t have a lot of game-changers on defense so Byrd stood out. But did he have a better campaign than Cushing (PEDs or not), Clay Matthews or Brian Orakpo?

The reason most folks would know what hCG is because it’s what pregnancy tests for. In males, however, there are slightly elevated levels of hCG after ejaculation, which is what ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported. According to Will Carroll, that doesn’t mean much.

hCG in itself does not make you bigger like what you think of with steroids. It’s used after a steroid cycle to essentially “kick start” the testicles to start working again. It’s not masking steroids or anything like that. It’s a substance commonly used after a steroid cycle so, as Carroll suggests, Cushing was likely using during training camp if the test came in September.

After Brian Cushing tested positive for a banned substance, most folks wanted to know what it was. After he came out and said it was not steroids and he had a lie detector test to prove it, folks really wanted to know.

Well, here it is: Cushing had slightly elevated levels of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

After Brian Cushing’s suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, quite a few folks were upset because he had the Associated Press rookie of the year award. He was also a second team All-Pro, courtesy of AP voters.

Those that were upset at this are getting their wish. According to various reports, the AP will conduct a re-vote for the rookie of the year.

Texans LB Brian Cushing took a lie detector test to prove he did not take a performance enhancing drug, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Cushing has denied all along that he took a PED.

The four-game suspension for Texans LB Brian Cushing has fans “disappointed, but not shocked” according to SB Nation’s Battle Red Blog.

As they explain, there have been rumors linking Cushing to steroids since his college days. It was always in the back of their minds.

The NFL’s rookie of the year will be suspended for the first four weeks of the season.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Cushing is being suspended for violating the NFL’s steroid policy.