Marcus Washington: Suffering in Silence

An apparent diluted urine sample resulted in the increased scrutiny of Marcus Washington for suspected drug use. It was during a routine sampling of urine that Washington's his sample was flagged as suspicious, it was found to be dilute. He was subsequently placed into Stage One of the NFL's substance abuse program. In the Stage One program he was subjected to random drug testing and a psychiatric evaluation.

Through the course of the increased scrutiny Washington never tested positive for the substance abuse. Nevertheless, the increased scrutiny resulted in significant emotional distress, as Washington feared that such scrutiny might tarnish his reputation.

"The thing of it is once your name gets tossed into something like this, it's hard to get it back, even if you know in your heart you didn't do anything. People are going to think what they're going to think," Washington said. "No matter what you do, they'll have that in the back of their minds. I didn't want that for me."

In addition to playing under the air of suspicion, Washington suffered injuries to his knee, hip, and elbow which limited his effectiveness. He has entered this year's minicamp with a renewed enthusiasm that this season will be both personally as well as for the team.


Howard Bryant's article on Marcus Washington

This was certainly an interesting article regardint the NFL's drug testing policy. It is unfortunate that Marcus Washington suffered under the scrutiny of suspected substance abuse, but, it is important to see that the NFL is doing a better job of keeping substance abuse out the sport than is MLB. The NFL will hopefully, improve the program so that athletes will no longer face unwarranted suspicions.