Dallas Cowboys defensive end Robert Quinn is suspended two games without pay for violating the NFL’s Performance Enhancing Drug policy. Quinn violated the policy by using a masking agent.
Player agent Sean Kiernan tweeted a detailed story of the timeline leading up to Thursday’s announcement, calling the NFL “tone-deaf,” for its decision to uphold the suspension after appeal “even though the NFL admitted during the hearing that it did not believe Rob was intentionally doping.”
The 29-year-old takes medication daily for seizures, according to Kiernan’s statement, and failed a drug test on April 2 because he tested positive for probenecid. Probenecid is a drug that was used consistently to mask the use of steroids in the 80s and 90s, but it’s hard to get access to without a prescription and is primarily used for people with gout now, according to Kiernan. Quinn’s legal team got access to pharmacy records which showed that there was a prescription for probenecid filled before Quinn’s seizure medicine prescription ahead of the April drug test.
Quinn, who is in his ninth season in the league and first with the Cowboys, underwent surgery earlier this week to repair fractures in his left wrist but was not outright expected to miss the Sept. 8 season-opener because of the injury. Now, he is forced to take extra time to heal.
