FanHouse WillSmith

While NFL players serve league-imposed suspensions, they're ineligible to practice, work out at the training facilities, or participate in any other team activities, which means it's up to them to stay in shape on their own. But for three players who are suspended for the start of the 2009 season, they'll be training at former UFC champion Randy Couture's mixed martial arts gym in Las Vegas.

Rich Cimini of the New York Daily News reports that Jets outside linebacker Calvin Pace and Saints defensive ends Will Smith and Charles Grant -- all of whom will serve four-game suspensions for using banned supplements -- are going to spend that time working out at Xtreme Couture, a gym widely regarded as one of the best MMA training facilities in the world.

This is a good thing, this ruling that came down Saturday in the StarCaps case. You may not see it that way if you're a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, who now face the first four games of their season without their Pro Bowl defensive tackles. Or if your team is the New Orleans Saints, who've likely lost their starting defensive ends for those first four games.

But if you're the kind of person who thinks pro athletes (and, by extension, the children who admire them) should be discouraged from taking drugs to cheat at their games, you have to look at today's development as a positive.

As you may recall, five NFL players were slapped with respective four-game suspensions late last season -- though they never served them while their legal claims were being heard in court. Friday, a federal judge dismissed the claims of the players -- Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Vikings, Charles Grant and Will Smith of the Saints, and unsigned Deuce McAllister.

Those five players -- well, four if McAllister doesn't sign somewhere -- will be forced to sit out the first quarter of the season for their respective teams.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

Gregg Williams hasn't informed a free agent decision for New Orleans yet, hasn't hand-picked the inevitable defensive playmaker the Saints choose with their 14th-overall selection this year, hasn't installed a single scheme in a minicamp. Yet Williams' reputation has preceded him to the Crescent City, and his hiring as defensive coordinator is already considered one of the most important moves in team history.

After almost two decades of guaranteed defensive putridity, the last three of which have revolved around Gary Gibbs' lack of talent identification and bland scheming, the idea of Williams and his history of intelligent, hard-working, active, complex defenses coming to the Superdome is music to the ears. It also might finally push the Saints over the top.

When it comes to golf, I dare you to think of a more famous twosome than this one.

Tiger Woods, who was in Washington D.C. for the inauguration celebration for Barack Obama, got a few minutes to chat with the president-to-be, and offered him the ultimate White House gift. A round with Tiger himself.

Great news for Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints fans. Maybe.

A federal judge has blocked the suspensions of five players, including Vikings Pro Bowl defensive tackles Pat and Kevin Williams. The five were banned for the last four games of the NFL regular season after testing positive for a banned diuretic over the summer and eventually having their appeals heard and denied.

The legal process started Wednesday, when the Williamses (not related) took their case to a district court in Minneapolis. There they convinced a judge to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the suspensions and allowing the two to return to practice.

Both tackles have returned to practice, and actually were at the Vikings' facility Friday instead of at the hearing over this latest legal action.

Thursday, the NFL Players' Association sued on behalf of the Williamses and the three affected Saints players, which include defensive linemen Charles Grant and Will Smith, along with running back Deuce McAllister.

As expected, the NFL Players Association has filed suit in federal court asking that suspensions of six players be overturned.

From the Associated Press story via Access Vikings:

The NFL Players Association is suing to block five of the six player suspenions for violating the league's anti-doping policy. The suit field in federal court is on behalf of Kevin and Pat Williams of the Vikings and Charles Grant, Deuce McAllister and Will Smith of the New Orleans Saints. The five players were suspended for testing positive for a banned diuretic that can be used as a masking agent for steroids. The diuretic was in a supplement that did not list the diuretic as an ingredient.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports the union is going to ask for a ruling by Friday, meaning that the involved teams are left twisting in the wind regarding the availability of their players.

Houston's Bryan Pittman isn't included in this lawsuit.

This filing comes less than 24 hours after a Twin Cities judge issued a temporary restraining order to block the suspensions of the two involved Vikings.

The NFL has suspended six players for four games apiece for using a banned substance.

The players are Saints defensive linemen Charles Grant and Will Smith, Saints running back Deuce McAllister, Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams and Texans long snapper Brian Pittman.

The players all tested positive for the banned substance Bumetanide. They all appealed the suspensions, saying that Bumetanide is an ingredient in the over-the-counter supplement Star Caps, and that the NFL did not tell players that Star Caps is banned. But the NFL turned down their appeals.

Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jackson was not suspended even though it has been reported that he also tested positive for Bumetanide. The NFL did not explain why Jackson was not suspended.

UPDATE: The NFL's official announcement is below.

The NFL used to be about football. Recently, it's been more about punishing players for any number of transgressions, many of them bordering on the ridiculous.

What isn't ridiculous, at least in theory, is keeping performance-enhancing drugs out of the league. But the devil, as they say, is in the details.

Last week we learned that several NFL players had tested positive for a banned diuretic that not only helps with weight loss, but is also used as a masking agent for steroids. The biggest names included Saints Will Smith and Deuce McAllister, and Vikings Pat Williams and Kevin Williams.

In an effort to educate players about what they can legally put into their bodies, the NFL set up a telephone hotline. Seems simple enough: have a question about a supplement, get somebody on the horn and get an answer.

One problem, though: the ol' phone bank is understaffed. At least according to Vikings wideout Bernard Berrian:

I'm from New Jersey and have seen every episode of The Sopranos, so I like to fancy myself an expert in the field of keeping information "in the family." Roger Goodell, apparently, is not.

Time and time again, the shroud of privacy that the NFL promises its players in certain situations turns out to be as thin as tissue paper; players are held to the tightest-lipped of standards while seeing that courtesy unrequited with every bolded headline exposing a player's "private" matters.

We got a repeat lesson on this hypocrisy this week, when four of supposedly 15ish players -- Saints Deuce McAllister, Charles Grant, and Will Smith along with Texan Bryan Pittman -- were outed as having tested positive for a diuretic that resides on the league's banned substance list. Results of these tests aren't supposed to be made public.