Chargers | Cooper to miss first four games Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:02:18 -0700 The NFL notified the San Diego Chargers stating that LB Stephen Cooper will miss the first four regular-season games of 2008 for violating the league's policy on steroids and related substances. Cooper has been suspended without pay for the first four games. http://www.kffl.com/hotw/nfl
First its Shawne Merriman last year, then it is all quiet. Now Lehr is being investigated for possible selling of steroids and now Cooper is suspended. I just hope this league doesn't end up like baseball and have a cloud over it and each of its players every day of the year. EDIT: I wonder if they knew ahead of time or something about this. It could be the reason of signing Derek Smith, former 49er LB.
From PFT today. http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/ NOT THE FIRST PROBLEM FOR COOPER Posted by Mike Florio on April 15, 2008, 9:02 p.m. In the wake of then news that Chargers linebacker Stephen Cooper has been suspended four games for violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy, several readers have pointed out to is that this isn’t Cooper’s first problem with drugs. In 2002, Cooper was found in possession of a thousand steroids pills. A freaking thousand. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, and said that he planned to use the pills to get ready for the NFL draft. Amazingly, he wasn’t charged with intent to distribute. Because he persuaded authorities that he planned to take all of them. All thousand of them. Maybe, in hindsight, Cooper is the guy who spiked Shawne Merriman’s supplements. (We’re joking. We think.)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DC173AF933A25751C1A9649C8B63 Great find. Dude had them in his car when he got pulled over. And they couldn't get an intent to distribute charge?
UPDATE Chargers LB Stephen Cooper, who's been suspended for the first four games of the 2008 season, reportedly tested positive for ephedra. He tested positive in December. Cooper claims he "did not realize" ephedra was banned by the NFL. It hasn't been allowed in the league since 2001. Sourchttp://www.rotoworld.com/content/home_NFL.aspxe: San Diego Union-Tribune