The latest from around the AFC:
- Texans linebacker Brian Cushing earned the second PED suspension of his career Wednesday, and while he appealed the previous ban in 2010, he’s not going to fight the punishment this time. “It is with the deepest remorse, he humbly apologizes to his fans, teammates and coaches,” Cushing’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, said. “After consulting with his attorney and his agent he felt rather than dragging the appellate process out, this would be the best way to proceed.” Cushing will sit out the Texans’ next 10 games, which means the earliest he’ll see the field again is Dec. 3 in Tennessee.
- The roster bonuses in quarterback Josh McCown‘s contract with the Jets could make it difficult for him to keep the starting job as the season progresses, ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes. Already on a fully guaranteed $6MM salary, McCown will earn $125K for each game he starts in 2017. Given that the Jets are more likely to contend for the first overall pick in the 2018 draft than a playoff spot this season, McCown might not be long for the No. 1 role. Not only would the Jets save money by benching McCown, but they’d get a chance to evaluate one or both of their young signal-callers, Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty.
- Factoring in this season, linebacker Kyle Van Noy‘s two-year extension with the Patriots amounts to a three-year, $12.87MM contract, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com writes. The deal comes with $5.5MM in guarantees, including a $3.5MM signing bonus and a fully guaranteed $2MM salary for 2018. It also features a reporting bonus ($100K) and two workout bonuses (one for $7,095, another for $25K) in 2017 and a $100K roster bonus in both 2018 and ’19.
- The Raiders are nearing an extension with one of their top players.
Cushing should find a short pier and take a long walk
Will that help you sleep at night?
If every player who had used a performance enhancing drug was kicked out of the league, there would probably but about 1500 available roster spots immediately. It would be a field day for clean athletes. Still repeated and excessive use has to be punished, for the sakes of the the athletes themselves.
A bunch of maniacs on roid rage are likely to hurt each other even worse, face medical consequences due to the chemistry and do even crazier things off field (beat up girlfriends, start bar fights, punch cops).
Cushing brought it on himself. He just had to say not to PED.
Is that what live was like in the 70s and 80s in Pittsburgh?