Advertisement
However, both players, along with four others who were suspended Tuesday, are expected to apply for injunctions today in U.S. District Court in an attempt to continue playing.
The news came two days after the Vikings moved into first place in the NFC North with a 34-14 victory over division rival Chicago at the Metrodome. It’s the first time the Vikings have held sole possession of the division lead since Brad Childress became coach in 2006. The Williamses, who are not related, have been a key part of the team’s success anchoring the NFL’s second-best run defense.
The suspensions are set to begin Sunday when the Vikings face Detroit and end on Dec. 29,
a day after the team’s regular-season finale against the New York Giants.
The Williamses are among six NFL players who were suspended for using a diuretic that can serve as a masking agent for steroids.
Angelo Wright, the agent for Pat Williams, said he plans to file a motion in federal court this morning. The basis of any legal case would stem from the fact the players took a product known as StarCaps, a weight loss pill manufactured by California-based Balanced Health Products. An NFL-banned product known as Bumetanide was in the pills but not listed as an ingredient. David Cornwell, a lawyer for three New Orleans Saints player who also were suspended Tuesday, said during the appeals process that the NFL’s drug administrator, Dr. John Lombardo, acknowledged he did not inform players that StarCaps contained Bumentanide.
But Adolpho Birch, NFL vice president of law and labor policy, said on a conference call Tuesday that the league sent out a warning about StarCaps in late 2006.
Vikings coach Brad Childress was not available to the media Tuesday, the players’ day off, and owner Zygi Wilf spoke to reporters after a civic luncheon in Duluth before the suspensions were announced in the late afternoon.
The team did issue a two-sentence statement that read: “In response to this afternoon’s ruling, the Minnesota Vikings are very disappointed in the National Football League’s decision and suspension of Kevin and Pat Williams. At the appropriate time, we will have further comment.”
Pat Williams stands to lose $941,176 of his $4 million in base salary; Kevin Williams would forfeit $235,294 of his $1 million in base salary. Also suspended Tuesday were running back Deuce McAllister and defensive linemen Charles Grant and Will Smith of New Orleans and long snapper Bryan Pittman of Houston.
An ’uphill battle’
The Williamses’ request for a preliminary injunction could go before a judge as early as this afternoon, and a decision could be made the same day, according to Rick Ross, an employment and labor law attorney for Fredrickson and Byron of Minneapolis.
Ross said that it’s “generally an uphill battle” for employees to gain a preliminary injunction in the federal courts. The primary standard, he said, is that employees have to show irreparable harm, which is difficult.
“The argument, I suspect, that the two gentlemen will make is that their absence from the team for any period of time could result in the team losing, and they cannot be compensated for that loss,” Ross said.
Ross said the key could be the judges assigned to the case. The Williams are likely to fare better with a judge who is a sports fan. “Definitely, the judge you draw can impact the ultimate decision,” Ross said.
Said Birch: “The policy is very clear that the appeal decision is final. It is binding on all of the parties and that is where we are. Whatever happens beyond that I guess we’ll have to find out.”
Birch said if the Williamses obtain an injunction and the ruling is upheld, the suspensions would extend into the playoffs, assuming the Vikings advance.
Olympic sprint champion Justin Gatlin is an example of just how difficult it is to gain an injunction through federal courts. Gatlin won an Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters in 2004, but he was banned from competing for four years in 2006 after a second doping offense. The first offense was in 2001 for amphetamines that were part of his medication for attention deficit disorder — an offense that resulted in a two-year ban that was reduced to one year with the proviso that he would be banned for life if he failed a second test.
Gatlin sought an injunction from the federal courts this summer that would have allowed him to compete in the U.S. trials, claiming the first offense should not have resulted in any ban. A federal judge in Gatlin’s hometown of Pensacola, Fla., said Gatlin had been wronged in the process that resulted in his suspension. But the judge, Lacey Collier, denied Gatlin’s request for a preliminary injunction, saying that determining participation in the Olympic Games was the “exclusive jurisdiction” of the United States Olympic Committee, not the courts.
A developing story
The news of the Williamses suspensions first broke on Oct. 26. The two had their appeals hearings at the NFL offices in New York on Nov. 20. The players had separate hearings and were accompanied by team and legal representation that included Wilf and Kevin Warren, the Vikings vice president of legal affairs and chief administrative officer.
Wilf said Tuesday he attended the hearings “to lend support to Pat and Kevin and to make sure that the NFL knew that I took it very seriously and that the issues had to be aired out so that a resolution could come in a judicial manner.”
The NFL began testing for steroids in 1987 and instituted discipline for using them two years later. This marks the second consecutive season that the Vikings have lost a player to suspension after testing positive for a banned substance. Defensive end Ray Edwards missed the final four games last season after having his appeal denied.
Staff writers Chip Scoggins and Dennis Brackin contributed to this report.
