Denver Broncos LB D.J Williams and DE Ryan McBean sue NFL for wrongful suspension - NFL News
Denver Broncos linebacker, D.J. Williams, and defensive end, Ryan McBean, have decided to start court proceedings against the National Football League (NFL) as they seek to overturn a six match ban imposed for testing positive on illegal substances.
The two players were suspended on Friday, March 9, 2012 with the NFL releasing a statement that urine samples for both players tested positive for banned substances and hence the suspensions were handed down.
However, both Williams and McBean refuted the allegations and said that the NFL’s own collector broke the rules related to sample collection and tampered with it leading to the positive result.
Williams lawyer, Peter R. Ginsberg, said that his client’s reputation has been damaged and that the NFL broke its own rules and regulations to punish the players.
"The bottom line is that the NFL totally compromised the steroid policy, trampled on our clients' rights, damaged their reputations, are threatening their livelihoods and we've asked for judicial intervention to ensure against that happening,"
The league on its part believes that the case has no merit and hopes that the court will throw out the lawsuit and uphold the NFL’s decision.
Responding to the lawsuit, NFL spokesman, Greg Aiello, said Tuesday.
"The claims have no merit and we are confident that the discipline will be upheld and enforced as required by the policy,"
McBean’s lawyer, Peter s******r, believes that monetarily both players will suffer due to their tarnished reputations and it will be harder to market them.
"The damages are enormous. Forget about not just the damage to D.J.'s and Ryan's reputation, but monetarily, it's enormous."
The collector in the midst of the storm between the NFL and players has been fired by the league for dereliction of duty and tampering with the samples but the league still is not prepared to waive the suspensions.
Even the NFL in its earlier hearings maintained that the collector made mistakes and was fired as a result but inexplicably refused to carry out a second test and suspended the players.
The case is now under the Denver district court’s purview and more details about the case will be released in the coming days.
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