D.J. Williams, Ryan McBean challenge suspensions, NFLPA 'disappointed'

Late last week, Broncos players D.J. Williams and Ryan McBean were each suspended six games by the NFL for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. They weren't happy about it and have taken the league to federal court over the suspensions.

Also not happy about the suspensions? The NFLPA who is quite clearly "disappointed," and who had some scathing remarks for the league.

"The NFLPA is disappointed by the decisions in the cases of Ryan McBean and D.J. Williams. Despite substantial evidence of breaches in the collection protocol and other procedural irregularities, the NFL decided to punish these players without judicious review of the facts," the union said in statement. "The League-appointed hearing officer then affirmed the discipline, even though the specimen collector was fired by his agency for not following procedures. The NFL also failed to produce the sample collector as a witness during the players' appeals hearing.

"The NFLPA and NFL have been negotiating a new and comprehensive Substances of Abuse and Steroids policies. The facts in these two cases, and in recent cases in other sports, dramatically underscore the players' insistence to have independent, neutral arbitrators as part of any future policy. We will continue to fight for a fair, clean and safe game."

We've previously written about the problems involved in HGH testing -- or at least the problems involved in implementing HGH testing.

As Mike Freeman writes, the issues surrounding Williams and Bean and the collection of their samples and the legal process that will now go down could mean the delay (or death?) of HGH testing for the NFL.

The players legal challenge, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, involves the poor handling of the samples by the NFL's collector. They also claim that the arbitrator of their case, executive Harold Henderson, wasn't precisely fair in dealing with their case.

Henderson allegedly "ignored fatal issues concerning the collection process, safeguarding of the urine specimens and chain of custody," and that Henderson purposely delayed a ruling at the request of the NFL.

Per Florio, Williams claims his sample wasn't sealed in front of him, that the collector didn't get Williams' initials, that for nearly three hours the sample wasn't unaccounted for, that there was no documentation as to when the sample was collected, and issues on documentation with FedEx for the sample.

The collector was eventually fired.

Both players want the suspensions overturned and an injunction on the suspensions while the case is reviewed.