Raiders safety Cooper suspended July 20, 2007 ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) -- Oakland safety Jarrod Cooper was suspended on Friday for the Raiders' first four regular season games for violating the NFL's policy on steroids. Cooper, a valuable special teams player for the Raiders... http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...=ap-raiders-coopersuspended&prov=ap&type=lgns ____________ This is not surprising. This player was always much too amped up.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/10256937 Raiders are so deep at safety, and brought in alot of guys that specialize on special teams, that its no big loss for raiders. Good chance J cooper won't even make Raiders roster this year. BTw Shawn Merriman cheating, might as well level the playing field.
Cooper is a key special teams player for the Raiders. Merriman and Cooper both play Romanowski style football.
Of course merriman and Cooper don't go head to head. Point is if one team has players (cheating) by taking performance enhancing drugs, I want my team to follow suit.(even the playing field) Don't want to have wait forty years till my team gets to another superbowl.
Lets look at this example. The year Jets lost to Broncos IN AFc Championship game. AL Davis told everyone that Pat Bowlen(Broncos Owner) was cheating on salary cap. everyone said he was crazy and just sour grapes. Well after Broncos went on to win a superbowl , it later came out down road that AL Davis was right. Broncos were cheating. Lets see they had to give up a third or fourth round pick. After the fact. Lets see would you give up a third or fourth rounder for a superbowl victory. Nice Guys do finish last - See Leon Hess. Without those extra players(broncos were able to keep), Jets might have won the superbowl that year. also I Know there are alot of players and teams cheating when it comes to preformance enhancing drugs. Until they can test for HGH , (human growth Hormes) you bet there are alot of players on all teams cheating. Thats like saying Joe Klecko wasn't abusing roids.
To fail a steroids test one has to be stupid, arrogant, or incredibly unlucky. I liked Cooper and he was a good special teams player but he has to go. It should also be pointed out that there is usually a lengthy appeals process that plays out before this kind of thing gets announced, so the Raiders probably knew it was coming. I think this is more than offset by the recent signings of Donovin Darius and Colin Branch, not to mention linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski, a special teams demon from Seattle. They also drafted safety Eric Frampton, another guy who has a rep as a big hitter and special teams player.
With the Number one pick in the 2008 draft the Oakland Raiders select ...... For the Raiders defense he not a starter .. But hes still guilty. I think Merriman and this clown should be banned as Pacman and possiblyVick when itr all unfolds. They give these players too many chances. If I was commish Id have a 1 strike policy. freakin kids look at these players as hereos . Not all kids but some kids. My policy would be you fail a drug test dont bother appealing it just get out. You get arrested you get the chance to prove your innocence but when you are found guilty pack your bags. Im glad the commish is finally taking a strong stance on this stuff. How is it that these players make millions of dollars and they cant follow some simple rules of the law and the NFL's ? I mean common millions of dollars or breaking the law and drugs. My decision would be simple.
I agree in principle but it will never happen as long as there's a union. Great message sent last year to Merriman; sit out a few games, then come back to collect your awards and go to Hawaii.
Good thing that will never happen again. Players who get suspended for substance abuse are no longer allowed to go to the Pro Bowl that particular season.
Miller well our legal system says innocent unitl proven otherwise. So Id have to see how his legal trouble paned out . But Id have a sit down with him and let him know hes in the spot lite and any other problemes that might come about would lead to either a nice lenghty suspension or a permaban. Miller though is a unique situation. 1. hes a Jet..JK 1. Was it self defense and he just missed the guy or was he the instigator? I havent read much. But I would give the players the fact that our legal system says a key line INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. So until they are proven guilty whether by admiission or by evidencethats when suspensions and bans woud come down. I was in the military and I think high disclipline is key . You got young guys who never seen money like this and boom lets have some fun and cause trouble . Oh yeah Id also stop hold outs. You signed a contract . So man up and honor it. You wanna hold out cause you think you are worth more. Well go ahead and squeeze that Penny and see what happens. You are an entertainer thats all you are . You dont give any usefull amendity to the public besides that you play a sport and a good amount of yall treat the fans like crap. Id also institute a mandatory autograph session 2 hrs after every game.
Justin Miller is a different story. Jim Miller is who I asked about. He was the Bears quarterback in 1999 who was suspended for the final 4 games of the season for violating the league's substance abuse policy. He apparently had some steroids in his system after taking some sort of substance. Miller thought the supplements were safe and legal. In 1999 he would have been one of the last guys you would have suspected to have used steroids. He was a bad body quarterback. Jason Ferguson was suspended the same year for the same reason. He was another guy with a disgusting body. Now, maybe it was possible both of those guys purposefully used steroids, but it is also very possible they were telling the truth.
