Nashville lab found Bumetanide for athlete in 2007

Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Minnesota Vikings and Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith of the New Orleans Saints were suspended last week for four games each.

The five players tested positive in training camp in July and August for the banned diuretic Bumetanide, which can be used as a masking agent for steroids. Diuretics are also used to quickly shed weight. The drug was in the dietary supplement StarCaps even though the label did not list the diuretic as an ingredient.

"It's not there by accident," Black said.

A federal judge last Friday blocked the NFL from suspending the players for violating the league's anti-doping policy while he studies the arguments.

The key issue in the case before the federal judge is whether the NFL had any specific obligation to notify players and the union that it had known since at least 2006 that the weight-loss supplement contained the banned diuretic. The NFL, which added StarCaps to its list of prohibited dietary supplement companies in December 2006, says the burden is on players to know what's going into their bodies.

The union had claimed Lombardo, in consultation with the league's attorneys, withheld critical information on StarCaps containing the banned diuretic.

NFL attorney Dan Nash argued Lombardo had made a professional decision to warn players in general about diuretics rather than specifically about StarCaps.

Atlanta's Grady Jackson, identified in media reports as a player who also tested positive for Bumetanide, filed suit against StarCaps in Alameda County Superior Court in California last month, seeking restitution for any lost salary and damages for "false advertising and unfair business practices."