Rumor: Merriman tested positive again - DENIED (1 Viewer)

[craxie]

this was posted the 7th

http://forums.chargers.com/showthread.php?...51&page=341 (post 3410)

Let me start off by saying, i don't know if it is true at all !!!!! but just got 2 call and was told that 2 Chargers failed a test for steroids, i won't use names cause i dont know if its bull or not, has anyone heard anything at all ?????

this was interesting, because it was BEFORE the Cooper suspension was announced (the 15th)then after the Cooper suspension was announced, the same poster had this to say:

http://forums.chargers.com/showthread.php?...51&page=345 (post 3443)

sorry bro it is 56

this of course provoked a bit of consternation and prompted this question to Kevin Acee Wednesdayhttp://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/chargers/mailbag.html

Kevin, message boards are burning up with speculation that two Chargers were hit for violating the leagues banned substances policy. We all know that the first one is Cooper, but the online sewing circles all are speculating that the second is Merriman. Any truth to this rumor?

-Mark

This is why I hate the Internet. I wish we all still used typewriters.

-Kevin

an interesting non-denialand there there was this Friday from a DIFFERENT poster:

http://forums.chargers.com/showthread.php?...51&page=348

post 3472

Ive lived my whole life in SD and been a season ticket holder for about 7 years. Today I was at lunch and a client of mine who works with some of the charger players and he droped a bomb on me. Before I even write it I just want you guys to know that I dont believe it myself and I wont believe it. But he is a reliable source who has no reason to make stuff up. He said that Merriman Tested positive again for a drug of some kind I dont know if it was a steroid and he will be suspended for 1 year due to the fact it is his 2nd violation. He went into more detail but the main thing is. He tested positive a month or so ago and the league will take its time before making a decision. Do with that what you want but I hope its not true.

just an anonymous source on the forumsand finally

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/charg...1s16cooper.html

quote from GM AJ Smith on the Cooper suspension

Coop embarrassed himself, his family and the Chargers. He made a mistake and now he will move forward with his life. Some guys learn from their mistakes and others do not.

it might be stretching, but some have taken this to be an oblique reference to Merriman getting busted a 2nd timeif so, Jyles Tucker might be a name worth remembering

update:

http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/sports/ch...ves/022534.html

The rumors, evidently, weren't going to go away. Shawne Merriman understood that when I asked him about them yesterday.

So here you go: He categorically said he has not tested positive for steroids or illicit drugs.

"I would know, if anybody," Merriman said. "If I failed a drug test or steroids test I'd be the first one to know about it. And after it being leaked the first time, I don't think someone would be holding back the results this time."

Ordinarily, I am not in the rumor business. That's the Internet's job.

I address this here only because I felt it had reached a point where enough people were talking about it, and I think it needs to be squelched. Over the past couple weeks, I have received several dozen emails begging me for information about this. Emailers and callers have told me there are rumors all over fan forums that Merriman has tested positive for this or that substance. Other media members were asking me about it.

Merriman, who in 2006 was suspended for failing a test for a banned performance-enhancing substance, hears all sorts of things about himself. He is not exactly shy. He has a home in Los Angeles and doesn't stay away from the downtown San Diego clubs. He spends a fair amount of time in New York, where he was last week for the Conde Nast Hot List Party and ended up on "Page Six" in the New York Post.

"When you're out doing so many things, people just talk more," he said.

When we met Thursday afternoon, Merriman had just finished a workout that took up most of the day. I assure you whatever other stuff Merriman does (judging beauty pageants, partying with rappers and actors and even Donald Trump, attending charity events and running his mulitple businesses) football is still his passion.

He appeared bigger and leaner than ever.

Further, to satisfy what will no doubt be lingering curiosity, not only was Merriman emphatic about the rumors, but over the past week two other sources that would know if Merriman had failed a test told me he had not. (I did not write this blog until I'd had a chance to meet with Merriman face to face.)

At one point Thursday I said to Merriman, "So there is no chance I will hear about a failed test in the next few weeks or months?"

He said, "Zero. None."

 

[Tecmo]

wow, good information collected here

 

[massraider]

Impossible.

Raider fans aren't lucky enough to see Jared Allen and Merriman gone this year.

 

[FTRWRTR]

Nothing I've read in those links have convinced me that merriman is gone for the year. That said I've always felt that a guy who presumably did steroids for multiple years as a pro won't all of a sudden clean up his act because of a 4 game suspension. Especially when it was known he played last season while on 'rhoids and he still gets rewarded by making the pro bowl and almost wins defensive player of the year. Not to mention the millions of dollars he mostly likely got in bonus money

 

[pretender]

 

[bcr8f]

it might be stretching, but some have taken this to be an oblique reference to Merriman getting busted a 2nd time

if so, Jyles Tucker might be a name worth remembering

Might be stretching. It could still happen but we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Mr Capicollo]

What will be most amusing about this is watching the San Diego fans adjust their dance moves away from the protest that Merriman was unfairly labeled as a drug user for mistakenly using allergy medications and towards God-knows-what alibi.

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

What will be most amusing about this is watching the San Diego fans adjust their dance moves away from the protest that Merriman was unfairly labeled as a drug user for mistakenly using allergy medications and towards God-knows-what alibi.

LOLIm pretty sure most of the league is on something.If merriman is caught he's real dumb cause he knows what it will cost him and his team.

 

[bcr8f]

What will be most amusing about this is watching the San Diego fans adjust their dance moves away from the protest that Merriman was unfairly labeled as a drug user for mistakenly using allergy medications and towards God-knows-what alibi.

LOLIm pretty sure most of the league is on something.If merriman is caught he's real dumb cause he knows what it will cost him and his team.

He may find something they say is undetectable just as the NFL upgrades its testing equipment and finds it.

 

[radiohead417]

I could certainly see San Diego grabbing an OLB in the first-round (their only pick in the first three rounds anyway) if this is true. I wonder if Jared Allen & Shawne Merriman end up being gone, maybe the Broncos also knock LT off their first-round wish list?

 

[craxie]

the original source of the rumor just came back and had more to say

http://forums.chargers.com/showthread.php?...51&page=353 (post 3528)

just for the record it was not roids , i heard it was x so that would be an 8 game suspension

to me, this makes the entire scenario less credibleaside from the fact he's clearly wrong about supposing it would be an 8 game suspension (no such thing),

1. what were potentially reinforcing rumors from 2 independent sources are now contradictory (this one ecstasy + less than a year, that one steroids + a year)

2. if it was ecstasy, i'm not sure he would get a suspension at all for first time substance abuse (assuming it was first time)

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

the original source of the rumor just came back and had more to say

http://forums.chargers.com/showthread.php?...51&page=353 (post 3528)

just for the record it was not roids , i heard it was x so that would be an 8 game suspension

to me, this makes the entire scenario less credibleaside from the fact he's clearly wrong about supposing it would be an 8 game suspension (no such thing),

1. what were potentially reinforcing rumors from 2 independent sources are now contradictory (this one ecstasy + less than a year, that one steroids + a year)

2. if it was ecstasy, i'm not sure he would get a suspension at all for first time substance abuse (assuming it was first time)

It's very unlikely to be ecstasy. Don't the players get a bit of notice before a test, at least during the offseason? (Many players are out of town, so how can the league require immediate testing with no notice?) Two or three days' notice would be plenty to avoid testing positive, since that's how long ecstasy stays in a person's bloodstream.ETA: It appears that Cooper took ecstasy that contained ephedra. But note that he tested positive only for ephedra.

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

It's very unlikely to be ecstasy.

I say "It" as if it has a referent. That's giving the rumor too much credit.

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/sports/ch...ves/022534.html