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Andre Smith suspended 6 games

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by Finatik, Jun 1, 2022.

  1. Finatik

    Finatik Season Ticket Holder Staff Member Club Member

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    Bills special teams player Andre Smith has been suspended for the first six games of the season. Smith was suspended six games for violating the league’s policy against performance-enhancing substances, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

    The 25-year-old Smith is heading into his third season with the Bills. Although he is listed as a linebacker, last year he didn’t play any snaps on defense, but he did play 68 percent of the Bills’ special teams snaps.

    Originally a seventh-round draft pick of the Panthers in 2018, Smith has found a niche for himself as a role player, but he will now have an uphill battle to make the roster, as the Bills may find someone else who can do his job while he’s out for the first six games of the season.

    Smith is eligible to practice and play in the preseason for the Bills but will have to be away from the team starting in Week One.
     
  2. The_Dark_Knight

    The_Dark_Knight Defender of the Truth

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    Not that I care since it doesn’t affect our team but it makes me wonder; what is the league considering “performance enhancing substances”?

    I’ve read a few articles and in no article does it cite him using anabolic steroids. In no article does it cite him using human growth hormones (HGH). In no article does it cite blood doping. So what are we talking about?

    Without any specific mention of what substance he allegedly used, it’s difficult to have a discussion to the ethics or morality of said actions, but it just SEEMS to me the NFL and other National/international sports organizations have taken “performance enhancing substances” to the point now that a Joe Weider’s Muscle Builder protein shake would be considered a performance enhancing substance.

    For the sake of the fan base and the population as a whole, it would be nice as well as informative if we knew WHAT PED he supposedly used. Don’t get me wrong, if smith was blood doping…if he was using HGH or steroids, sorry about that. I get that. But with how this is reported?

    This general blanket of PEDs is getting as ridiculous as the general blanket of Covid cases…simple cases cited with no context nor any specifics.
     
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  3. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    The list of banned substances is a mile long and athletes have to be super careful what they take. But think about it, do you really think they memorize a pharmacist-sized list of impossible to pronounce words and check every label before taking something? Their trainers say, "Take this....it's legal", and they take it. Why wouldn't they? The problem is that there's dozens of ingredients at your local GNC that's not steroids or HGH that are on the NFL's list of banned substances.

    Tua's a great example- look how much he bulked up last year in the offseason. That was clearly not just working out and cardio. But the drug tests are random, meaning that he might not have even been tested in the last year. Imagine being a player and not knowing whether you're going to pass the league's test or not...to me it's just crazy.
     
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  4. The_Dark_Knight

    The_Dark_Knight Defender of the Truth

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    And this is the point I’m getting g at Key. This has gone to the point of ridiculousness.

    When professional sports cracked down in the use of anabolic steroids and HGH, they were able to cite not only the unfair physical advantage the use of these substances produced in athletic performance (ie Barry Bonds) but also to the extreme danger associated with the use of these substances (ie Lyle Alzado).

    Blood doping was just another method of being able to circumvent the testing process to give athletes that unfair advantage in athletic performance. These I absolutely get and understand but to suspend athletes who are using a supplement that may have a down ingredient as part of the overall product because said down ingredient is just another form of this, that or the other is getting ridiculous.

    For a league that is discussing whether or not to permit its athletes to use marijuana, a federally illegal narcotic then what in the heck is the problem with athletes using supplements that are legal?

    The double standard is mind boggling
     
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  5. Finatik

    Finatik Season Ticket Holder Staff Member Club Member

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    2 get a 6 game suspension this isn’t his 1st offense. Just sayin
     
  6. Puka-head

    Puka-head My2nd Fav team:___vs Jets Club Member

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    I know this will be a controversial point of view but...

    Why do they even test these guys? Who flipping cares? You want to risk your life to make that check? Go for it. Roid up, inject the venom. Go out there and rip it up for as long as you can and hope to survive the consequences later.

    No greater risk than a Firefighter, or a Nurse, or an Elementary School Teacher for effs sake has to face every day.

    Let them do whatever they feel they need to do to compete. The players already know. The bad **** kills you. Quickly in really yucky ways. So they don't do it. But these are highly paid professionals who should be able to bring their own tools to the job.

    Stop testing them FOR ANYTHING! It's nobody's business but theirs what they injest. Who cares if they snort some blow Saturday night? Who cares if they use some HGH to build muscle mass. Who cares if they rub the lotion on their skin? Mind your own damn bizness

    Not me. Just beat the flipping Jest is all I ask. Whatever it takes
     
  7. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    Because if you take that stance, then players feel like they have to take the bad stuff to compete on a level playing field. That means guys not taking it will wash out of the league pretty quick.
     
  8. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I care for several reasons:

    1) No player should feel an obligation to use PEDs - legal or not - in order to compete and earn a place in pro sports. As much as humanly possible, the players who make it and succeed should be there on their own natural gifts, skills and hard work. If you let players get away with taking questionable stuff, then its inevitable that more and more guys will be considered good who otherwise would have been forgettable, and players who would have earned those spots clean are out of a job unless they take the PEDs too. Its a viscious cycyle.

    2) There are absolutely long term dangers to more things than the steroids. We've seen numerous former players in their 40s and 50s die of mysterious organ failure over the past few decades, and most of them were never popped for roids or HGH. Its highly likely that many of them tore up their insides trying to get an edge from a bottle, and it may have worked but at the cost of their life.

    3) Competitive balance. When these things creep up, it usually happens in a few places more than others. You have a team with a bunch of guys who are jacked up on whichever PED, and that team in the short term gains an unfair advantage over the rest who are moreso clean. We know with absolute certainty that this is true in baseball, we strongly suspect it to be so in college football, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it were true at various points in the NFL too.
     
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