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Hey, remember the whole StarCaps "scandal". . .such as it was. . .from a few years ago? The one that was supposed to get Minnesota Vikings' defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams (and some other players that, really, don't matter) suspended for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs?
Well, as it turns out, the people responsible for the distribution of StarCaps "didn't know" that the diuretic bumetanide was in StarCaps. At least, that's the story they gave the judge in the case that resulted in the company's CEO being fined $60,000 on Friday.
Not only was the ingredient not on the label (meaning that, even if the players in question had been able to get a hold of anyone on the NFL's Supplement Hotline, they probably would have been given the thumbs-up to use it anyway), but the claim is that they "had never heard" of bumetanide.
Bumetanide is a diuretic, and it appears on the NFL's list not because of its performance-enhancing properties, but because it can be used as a masking agent.
A prolonged legal battle ensued over the entire StarCaps situation, which thankfully made it so that Pat Williams never served a single game of his suspension, and that Kevin Williams got his suspension reduced to two games, which he served at the beginning of the 2011 season.
Considering that Pat Williams played 14 years in the NFL without any other "substance" issues other than the StarCaps incident, and that Kevin Williams hasn't had any issues with such things in his 11-year career, it appears that we can finally, once and for all, confidently declare two things.
The first is that there still isn't, hasn't been, and won't be so much as one single shred of reliable proof that either Kevin Williams or Pat Williams ever used any sort of "performance-enhancing substance" during their time as members of the Minnesota Vikings. The second is that, on this issue, the National Football League was completely, totally, and undeniably wrong to suspend anybody.
It might seem a strange thing to bring up something that we thought had concluded a couple of years ago, but hey. . .news is slow at this point, and being able to say that we were right is always nice.