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Come Fan with UsTuesday, August 4, 2026

Reuben Foster’s disastrous NFL Combine also included a failed drug test

Reuben Foster’s urine sample was reported as diluted, which is “treated like a positive test” by NFL policy.

NCAA Football: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl-Alabama vs Washington
NCAA Football: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl-Alabama vs Washington
Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Reuben Foster is now in the NFL’s substance abuse program after his urine sample at the NFL Combine was reported as diluted, which is “treated like a positive test” by league policy, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Foster garnered headlines during the NFL Combine when he was sent home after a “heated argument” with a hospital worker. He apologized to all 32 teams for the incident, but will have to hope for more forgiveness after the results of his drug test.

The linebacker told Rapoport that he believes the failed test was a result of food poisoning that sent him to a doctor after cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea.

“I couldn’t eat much, but I had to drink water and Gatorade,” Foster told Rapoport. “Then a few coaches said something about me being too light. And I’m a coach-pleaser. I don’t care what everybody thinks, but I care what coaches think. So I drank and ate as much as I could without throwing up. Then I went in there, drinking and drinking water, trying to flush out my system from whatever was making me sick and trying to keep my weight up and took the test.”

Now that Foster has a failed test as a professional, he is in the NFL’s drug program, which means periodic, random tests. But he says he’s not worried.

“Put me in the program,” he said. “Test me.”

Once considered the consensus top linebacker in the draft class, the concerns stemming from his trip to Indianapolis have caused him to slide on draft boards. Temple’s Haason Reddick has jumped ahead of him on many mock drafts, although SB Nation’s Dan Kadar still ranks Foster as the best at the position.

It will only take one NFL franchise to roll the dice on Foster, but concerns about failed tests have scared away teams in the past.

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