Players to forfeit bonuses and lose out on salaries while on suspensions
Player conduct is one of the most important things that the NFL is concerned about. Following this, no mercy is given a player is deemed to be behaving contrary to the set of regulation. Apart from maintaining league discipline in the national football league, the drug rules are part of the most welcome among the players although criticism cannot be hidden. Drug rules were conceived when many players were suspected to be playing under influence and apart from just being indiscipline and ineffective players, their health was being weakened and this could translate to very bad criticism and fall of reputation to the league as a whole.
The national football league introduced drug rules long ago but was revised in the year 2007 with more tough requirements and penalties this time round. One of the repercussions was that players would dig deeper into their pockets for their misconducts in relation to the drug policy. Performance enhancement drugs and especially steroids were quite inevitable among many players. In the same year, the NFL added EPO, a blood boosting substance to their list of banned substances. This was after intensive discussions and negotiations between the officials of the players union and those of the league.
Among the agreed penalties of misconduct and use of banned substances among players included suspension to players who would be evidenced as using the drugs. Apart from this, players should be forfeited off their bonuses by and a determined percentage and even more tough, such players in their first time of testing positive cannot be paid during the time they are away on suspensions. Formerly, the salaries would be cut down but the bonuses maintained yet in most instances, players get bonuses that are fatter than their salaries. The NFL commissioner on behalf of the league Roger Goodell while announcing these changes in the drug and banned substances policy had expressed concern that its programs were being affected because of the wide usage of drugs among players. And this was not only the end because this regulation can be amended in future either to toughen it further or make it more use-friendly.
To make the players more responsible, this policy was implemented with tougher actions such that the testing of drug users would be done weekly and that any ten team players would selected randomly for the samples and EPO test as taken more seriously. Previously only seven members would be selected for the test and a total of about 10000 would undergo the test in the league which means that from 2007, this of players tested in each season is about 12000. In the United States by then, there was no other league that would carry EPO test at that close interval.
