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T.O. avoids suspension. PFT.com

T.O. AVOIDS STEROIDS SUSPENSION
Posted by Mike Florio on June 9, 2008, 4:23 p.m.

Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens has been placed into a program of enhanced testing under the NFL’s policy on anabolic steroids and related substances.

According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN, who once railed about confidential drug-use information being made public when the scoop wasn’t his, Owens failed to timely respond to a phone call attempting to arrange random testing.

Owens reportedly met with the league on the same day the team announced his three-year contract extension, and he offered a sufficiently “plausible” explanation for his failure to make himself available. Owens was not disciplined; instead, he can be randomly tested up to 24 times per year for performance-enhancing substances.

The issue came up only two weeks ago, and Owens has since been tested once, and passed it. He has never tested positive for steroids or other performance-enhancing substances.

The policy on anablic steroids and related substances has no grace period of fines. Instead, it calls for a four-game violation based on the first positive test.

And the league’s desire to ensure that player’s show up for random tests is understandable. If a player has opted to use a banned substance in the hopes of not getting tested decides to pretend that he didn’t get a call to show up and deposit a cup of, um, fluid for examination, the effort to catch players who break the rules is seriously undermined.