Larry Brown Sports

Jets offensive tackle Matt Slauson may have knocked Texans linebacker Brian Cushing out for the season by diving at his legs from behind on Monday night.

Cushing was pursuing Jets running back Bilal Powell on a running play in the second quarter when Slauson dove at him from behind with a cut block that caused Cushing’s left knee to buckle. Texans reporter John McClain said Cushing appeared to be done for the season with a torn ACL.

In an ironic twist, as our friend Mark Rafferty pointed out, Slauson is the same player who ripped Ndamukong Suh last season for being a dirty player.

“Somebody needs to get him under control, because he’s trying to hurt people,” Slauson said of Suh last November. “It’s one thing to be an incredibly physical player and a tenacious player, but it’s another thing to set out to end that guy’s career.

“I’m all for physicality, but within the framework of the game,” Slauson told the New York Post. “I know it takes a different type of person to be a defensive lineman — you’ve kinda got to be a jerk who wants to take the quarterback’s head off. But you [shouldn't] literally want to kill them like he does.”

So did Slauson’s chop block at the knees fall within the framework of the game? Does that not qualify as “trying to hurt people”? Maybe Slauson should realize that players do some things they’re not proud of during the heat of the game. And maybe he should apologize for his questionable play.

Has Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing been using steroids since high school?  Of course not.  He insists he hasn’t, so we have to believe him, right?  At first I was skeptical, but now we’ve got a medical diagnosis that supports Cushing’s denial.  The former USC star trains so hard for such an extended period of time that he’s become a product of “overtrained athlete suyndrome,” which supposedly spikes an athlete’s hCG levels and causes a testosterone imbalance.  Cushing tested positive for increased levels of hCG back in May, resulting in a four-game suspension:

Everything points to that overtrained athlete syndrome,” Cushing said, walking back to the Texans’ locker room after their afternoon practice. “I’m pretty sure it is. I’m pretty positive. I didn’t take anything. It’s not a tainted supplement. So all roads lead to that.”

Does it get any more lame than this?  I don’t think anyone has to go further than reading the name of the syndrome before wanting to laugh.  I bet members of the AP will buy this excuse, but I certainly don’t.  It’s funny how we’ve never heard of such a thing with any other player who’s tested positive for a steroid-related substance.

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We have a category here at LBS called “Policing the Media” which is invoked when we’re getting on the media for being out of line. This is the ultimate case where the media must be called out for its pathetic actions. On Friday, it was revealed that Texans linebacker Brian Cushing would be suspended four games of the upcoming season for violating the league’s drug policy. After the weekend we found out that the positive test occurred in a random test during the 2009 season. Based on this new information, the Associated Press decided to re-vote on the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award that went to Cushing. They voted again on Wednesday and Cushing still won the award. I am dumbfounded and horrified that we have people so incapable of making reasonable decisions based on new information. Here was the reasoning behind two of the 18 voters who still put Cushing first on their list:

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One of the longest standing rumors in football circles was finally confirmed on Friday evening. Adam Schefter reported that Houston Texans linebacker and reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year Brian Cushing has been suspended the first four games of the season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Making matters worse for Cushing is his appeal was already denied by the NFL. As Pro Football Talk points out, Cushing joins Shawne Merriman and Julius Peppers as the third Defensive Rookie of the Year to be busted for steroids in the last eight years.

As far back as high school, Cushing was rumored to be a steroids user. Cushing went on to star at USC despite being limited by shoulder and ankle injuries at various points in his career. Then around draft time in 2009, a report said both Cushing and fellow USC linebacker Clay Matthews tested positive for steroids at the combine. That report turned out to be false. Now, we have confirmation that Cushing has used steroids. Whether he’s been escaping positive tests for years and just now was finally caught or if he just began using we don’t know. We do know that one of the longest standing rumors in football circles has finally been confirmed: Brian Cushing is a steroids user. Maybe some of the teams that passed him up in the draft are saying “told you so.”

Sources:
Cushing suspended 4 games [Adam Schefter/ESPN]