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The NFL has suspended six players for four games (the remainder of the season) for using a banned diuretic substance. The Minnesota Vikings were the hardest hit, with starting defensive linemen Pat and Kevin Williams getting suspended. Three New Orleans Saints were also suspended, running back Deuce McAllister and defensive linemen Charles Grant and Will Smith, along with special teams player Bryan Pittman of Houston.

New Orleans probably had no chance to make the playoffs anyway, but this could cost the Vikings the divisional title.

How does a diuretic provide a competitive advantage?

TheConfessor wrote:How does a diuretic provide a competitive advantage?

Hope this helps --

New York, NY (Sports Network) - The National Football League announced a list of six players on Tuesday that were each suspended four games for a violation of the league's policy on anabolic steroids and related substances.

New Orleans' Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith, Minnesota's Pat Williams and Kevin Williams and Houston's Bryan Pittman will each sit out after violating a provision of the policy relating to the use of diuretics and water pills, which may serve as masking agents for steroids.

All six players will miss the remainder of the regular season, as there are only four weeks left in the 2008 campaign. If the Saints, Vikings or Texans qualify for the playoffs, the players are eligible to return to their respective active rosters on December 29.

Jeff Pash, the NFL's executive vice president of labor and league counsel, heard and decided all but one of the appeals to the suspension. He noted in his rulings that the diuretic taken by the players, Bumetanide, had long been a prohibited substance and that the league's policy contains numerous warnings about dietary supplements.

Deuce McAllister?!

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell ya!

(I didn't mean that facetiously. I really am shocked.)

SportsFan68 wrote:

TheConfessor wrote:How does a diuretic provide a competitive advantage?

Hope this helps --[/b]

Thanks. I interpret that to mean that diuretics themselves don't help performance, but might help prevent getting caught for taking stuff that does help performance.

Now if they were thoroughbreds...

NellyLunatic1980 wrote:Deuce McAllister?!

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell ya!

(I didn't mean that facetiously. I really am shocked.)

Deuce is still a good guy. Apparently they all had the same doctor who didn't tell them that the diuretic they were just taking to make weight was one on the banned list.

So who is Roger Goodell? Some NFL official who suspended the players?

MarleysGh0st wrote:So who is Roger Goodell? Some NFL official who suspended the players?

Commissioner of the NFL.