Brandon Browner suspended indefinitely for substance-abuse violation

The NFL’s change of heart was seemingly tied to threats of legal action from Browner’s agent. Browner argued that he should not have been elevated to Stage 3 of the league’s testing program for missing mandated drug tests while he was playing in the Canadian Football League. As a result of the missed testing, Browner was put within one miscue of earning an indefinite suspension as opposed to a weaker penalty.

Browner was initially given a one-year suspension. His request for an appeal was denied last December, and then he was given a seemingly harsher “indefinite” timeline for return. Browner served two and a half months of his suspension.

Browner, who will become an unrestricted free agent after the 2013 season, turned down an offer from the NFL to reduce his sentence by three months earlier in December. Browner claims that a urine sample that tested positive for a banned substance was mishandled upon collection.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Browner’s career may be in danger. Browner will very likely struggle to field any interest from teams on the free agent market with a lengthy suspension hanging over his head. He will need to be explicitly reinstated by the league. Terms for reinstatement are unknown.

Browner, 29, claims that the urine collector used a damaged cup and then poured the urine from one cup into another, contaminating the sample that later tested positive for a banned substance. The NFL and NFLPA have elected not to comment on Browner’s claim of a compromised collection process.

The reduced penalty offered by the league would have made Browner eligible to be reinstated in October of the 2014 season, instead of the current one-year ban that will make him ineligible until December 2014.