His continually evolving stories are just making him look worse, I agree. He would have been better off not saying anything at all.
I was just listening to 610 and they had John McClain, who was on his way to the movies to go see Robin Hood AND Iron Man 2 aka an excuse to eat 3 tubs of popcorn, call in and comment some more on Cushing and he gave an interesting take on the tumors side of the story. McClain said PFT got a copy of the letter players receive from the NFL when they do test positive for hCG and in that letter, players are instructed to go have medical tests to look for tumors and are given cautious warnings/background information on tumors as like already stated can be the cause of the hCG levels being detected. So it wasn't like Cushing pulled this tumor stuff out of his ass or his lawyers ass, it was the NFL that brought that subject to his attention. This is not a post to say Cushing is innocent but to bring more information on how the tumor thing came about
Is Cushing in the hospital undergoing test to locate these tumors that he claims to be worried about?
Cushing already had tests done back in September or whenever this whole thing popped up. This was advised by the league, not Cushing going on his own time or whatever. He had no testicular cancer. Pretty sure this is what Wallyj is referring to. I'll go see if I can track down the PFT article which talked about this particular thing.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...cushing-underwent-a-battery-of-medical-tests/ http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/05/14/cushings-battery-of-tests-was-ordered-by-the-league/
Oh that came from the lawyer his agent, Tom Condon, hired to shepherd him through the test appeal process. According to him, Cushing has an abnormal pituitary gland that causes his body to produce higher levels of hCG. Said attorney further stated that this was documented by USC's doctors. Now if THAT is true, I have three questions: 1) Wouldn't the Texans' medical staff have known of this as well especially since they should have given him a complete physical when he joined the team? Part of that process should have involved their getting copies of his USC medical records which would have pointed this out to them. 2) Knowing this, wouldn't they (Texans) have notified the NFL of Cushing's condition and provided documentation before the drug testing as this condition, if true, would have most certainly resulted in his testing positive? (which is exactly what happened) 3) If Cushing does indeed have a malfunctioning pituitary gland, wouldn't his levels of hCG test out as elevated ALL of the time and not just sporadically? I am by no means a doctor but this just looks like yet another spin job by Team Cushing.
I'm no doctor either but it is indeed a spin job going on. First it was a tumor, now it's a gland problem he had going back to USC. What's next? I've yet to find one houston media source/outlet that believes him/his story.
Yeah, I also agree that him talking has made things worse. It doesn't help his credibility that he spun stories like the cancer thing when it was actually an NFL policy to disprove alternate possibilities (posts 545). He should have said this pituitary gland as excuse #1 not excuse #3 after 1 and 2 have made him look silly. It's really hard to reasonably defend him now after all the story changing and spinning...basically, all the lying.
All that matters is that Cushing played at an all-pro level while he was clean. He'll be back and our defense will be better because of him.
McNair, Goodell to talk about Cushing situation Texans owner looking to have LB's suspension cut or overturned By JOHN MCCLAIN Texans owner Bob McNair will meet with Roger Goodell in New York on Monday to try to persuade the NFL commissioner to reduce or overturn linebacker Brian Cushing’s four-game suspension. Cushing was suspended for the first four games this season because he violated the league’s policy against performance-enhancing drugs by testing positive for hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), a banned substance that can be used to mask steroids. A person with knowledge of Cushing’s situation said McNair will present new evidence to Goodell the owner hopes will shorten or eliminate the suspension that is costing the linebacker games against Indianapolis, Washington, Dallas and Oakland. Goodell suspended Cushing and then rejected Cushing’s appeal in February. Cushing, who can practice during training camp and play in preseason games, denied using hCG when the suspension was announced. He said he didn’t know how the substance got into his body. Cushing has convinced his owner. McNair recently said that he backs Cushing and believes he is innocent. McNair has paid for some of Cushing’s recent tests. Neither McNair nor Cushing could be reached Sunday. Since his positive test last season, Cushing has traveled the country visiting specialists, including some in Houston, hoping to find a doctor who can prove hCG was produced naturally in his body. Although hCG is a hormone that can be produced naturally in men and women, including in the pituitary gland, it is produced most commonly in pregnant women and has been used for weight loss and to slow the aging process. ProFootballTalk.com showed in the offseason that the standard letter the league sends to players who test positive for hCG warns them that it can be a sign of tumors and that they should get tested. Cushing was tested for tumors which can cause testicular cancer. Those tests were negative. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/7145062.html
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McNair needs to just stop with the manlove for Cushing. The argument that he created hcg naturally is just so unlikely. If that was the case, then why did his body just stop producing it so that he passed later tests? Let's move on already.
If Goodell is willing to have a sit down meeting with McNair, who truly believes he may have something new that can reduce or eliminate Cushing's suspension all together, why not give it a shot? What more do they have to lose?? Its not like Goodell is going to slap on a few more games to the suspension just for trying
We don't know that this is indeed the argument they're making. It said in the article "new evidence". Let's wait and see before we jump to conclusions and crucify B-Cush for something we don't know for sure he's done.
Just when people were starting to forget about this now McNair needs to make a fool of himself and bring this back up again. I'm starting to have questions about the relationship between McNair and Cushing. I wonder if Bob is willing to do soo much for another one of his players. Edit: BTW, Peter King found out what the "New Evidence" is.... over-trained athlete syndrome. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com//2010/writers/peter_king/08/08/mmqb/index.html MattJ and Adam are knocking this garbage out of the park right now. :grin:
It's the argument that he made before and why he's shopping for doctors to validate it. hey speaking of doctor shopping, maybe T-mac can give him some pointers in that department.
Agreed. The only "fool" scenario I can see is if McNair had the chance for a sit-down meeting with Goodell and passed it up. I don't care how unlikely it is - if one of your best players effectively swears his innocence on his life, and there's a plausible medical explanation (no matter how unlikely) to go along with it, you're a ****ty owner if you don't fight for your guy. I can guarantee you guys that Goodell doesn't hand out these meetings on a whim. The worst that can happen is he says no, and the situation remains as it already was. The best that can happen is the suspension is overturned or reduced. Seems a pretty easy decision, if the commish is open to a meeting.
