Spikes and his ADHD meds..

[DarrylS]

Interesting piece by Rappaport on Brandon Spikes in today's Herald, two revelations first that he was banned with interacting with the team.. and secondly the ADHD meds have now been cleared by the NFL..

There was speculation that he may have used the meds as some type of cheap high, maybe it is just agent spin, but apparently it is a prescribed medication and it has been cleared by the NFL.. he is stupid for not knowing the rules.. but time to move on.

Brandon Spikes anxious to play - BostonHerald.com

Captain Jerod Mayo has been conversing with the second-round draft pick.

“He’s ready to go,” Mayo said. “He’s been staying in shape, staying sharp, watching film; obviously, the TV copies. I’m pretty sure he’s ready to go.”

Watson also said Spikes has cleared his medicine with the NFL.

“There will be no issues with that going forward,” he said. “We always should try to learn, and Brandon is no different. The key to learning is to never make the mistake again. That’s Brandon’s clear intention. He was an important piece of the team and for him to have that mark by his name by his own doing and to miss football is something this young man wants no part of.”

 

[Kasmir]

Love hearing the leadership from Mayo -- he just continues to improve,

 

[RobertWeathers]

Interesting piece by Rappaport on Brandon Spikes in today's Herald, two revelations first that he was banned with interacting with the team.. and secondly the ADHD meds have now been cleared by the NFL..

There was speculation that he may have used the meds as some type of cheap high, maybe it is just agent spin, but apparently it is a prescribed medication and it has been cleared by the NFL.. he is stupid for not knowing the rules.. but time to move on.

Brandon Spikes anxious to play - BostonHerald.com

Good call-out, DarrylS. You always hope these guys don't make poor decisions (like taking meds and converting them into recreational drugs) and I'm glad he was being just an idiot.

I really think he is a critical player for the team in the post-season. Other than Indy, every team in the playoffs can run the football and by converting 3rd and shorts, that is a key way to keep Brady and Co. off the field. Spikes is a downhill tackler and has proven to be very good at stopping ballcarriers from gaining additional yardage after the 1st hit.

 

[alamo]

Interesting piece by Rappaport on Brandon Spikes in today's Herald, two revelations first that he was banned with interacting with the team..

The first is no "revelation", that's standard NFL procedure for suspensions due to PEDs.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Let's hope that he sincerely learned a life lesson here. Now the extra bye week gives him the needed time to get back into football mode. While his mates take some needed time off he should be THE fixture in the training facility.

 

[Betterthanmost]

Love hearing the leadership from Mayo -- he just continues to improve,

Mayo nearly slipped up and can and could have landed someone in trouble. He said Spikes has been watching film then said TV film as an after thought.
Who here thinks Spikes has been on his own without any help in learning stuff during this time off?

 

[sbpatfan]

Mayo nearly slipped up and can and could have landed someone in trouble. He said Spikes has been watching film then said TV film as an after thought.
Who here thinks Spikes has been on his own without any help in learning stuff during this time off?

Here we go...

 

[BrainTrust66]

Mayo nearly slipped up and can and could have landed someone in trouble. He said Spikes has been watching film then said TV film as an after thought.
Who here thinks Spikes has been on his own without any help in learning stuff during this time off?

Not me - perhaps they have an "assistant" drop off films and copious notes to Brandon's house.

 

[blackglass3]

Mayo nearly slipped up and can and could have landed someone in trouble. He said Spikes has been watching film then said TV film as an after thought.
Who here thinks Spikes has been on his own without any help in learning stuff during this time off?

As long as he's not "caught", I am ok with it. He should be there as much as humanly possible.

Maybe Theo Epstein can lend Spikes his gorilla suit. Then people won't notice him coming and going to Foxboro every day.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

While it's disappointing he made the mistake, sounds like he learned a valuable lesson from it.

It hasn't been pretty, but we've found a way to manage without him. But this defense would look a lot better with him around.

 

[alamo]

As long as he's not "caught", I am ok with it. He should be there as much as humanly possible.

Maybe Theo Epstein can lend Spikes his gorilla suit. Then people won't notice him coming and going to Foxboro every day.

I'm not OK with it if he's actually been to Gillette, that's simply blatantly ignoring the rules and is asking for problems. But I doubt he's done that.

It's not allowed for him to interact with the team and its coaches, but I haven't ever heard anything about prohibitions against talking to teammates. That makes little sense to make such a rule anyway. And I suspect it would be against the rules for the Pats' coaches to make up a special tape for Spikes and give it to him. But players have their own film to review at home, and if one of them passes on their film to Spikes I can't see how anyone could make a case against them.

 

[ahmed]

So he can't have any interaction with the team while he's suspended? Not even film? That's news to me...

 

[DarrylS]

The first is no "revelation", that's standard NFL procedure for suspensions due to PEDs.

Had read somewhere prior that this was situational...

 

[alamo]

Had read somewhere prior that this was situational...

I think it depends on the reason for the suspension, standard for PEDs but not the same for recreational drugs etc.

 

[patchick]

Up until now I had assumed that Spikes had no prescription, since that would have been an obvious thing to mention and it was studiously ignored. It appears that he now does -- if he did all along, I was wrong in what I said about him. (Except for the part of saying he was incredibly stupid not to clear it with the NFL, given that every player is told repeatedly that they have to and multiple players have been suspended for this before!)

As for the "watching film" bit, I think we're reading too much into a throwaway comment.

 

[DaBruinz]

I'm going to be honest. The current rules in the CBA for Illicit drugs vs. "PEDS" are backwards.. People who test positive for Illicit drugs get a slap on the wrist by comparison to the ones who take "PEDS".

I really hope they fix that in the next CBA.

Also, I hope that they change the rules so that a suspension means that it's just for games and not from all team activities..

 

[MoLewisrocks]

They've really got to start doing a better job of balancing the penalties with the offenses. What they are doing at this juncture is just nonsense. This kid and his team lose 4 games including 4 weeks of practice because he didn't get approval of a medication they have now approved going forward. Same penalty as someone caught using a banned substance for purely performance enhancing reasons. Same penalty as someone who caused the league and his team to endure a PR nightmare so severe his team even considered walking away from it's franchise QB... Meanwhile they have yet to suspend anyone for a blatent hit to the head and are now having to reconfigure everyone's fines in light of the old white icon getting off with a precedent setting $50K slap on the wrist for failure to cooperate into their half assed investigation into his junk mail harassment of a fellow employee. And fined two billion dollar franchises $100K for blatent rules infractions including one that occured on the field of play and another that would have gotten BB canned had they been able to establish it actually happened on his watch... Need some consistency here. Quit fining incidental crap - particularly when it was already flagged in game - and start punishing the real offenders with truly impactful ejection or game check losses if not playing time suspensions and draft pick dockings.

 

[Sundayjack]

Up until now I had assumed that Spikes had no prescription, since that would have been an obvious thing to mention and it was studiously ignored. It appears that he now does -- if he did all along, I was wrong in what I said about him. (Except for the part of saying he was incredibly stupid not to clear it with the NFL, given that every player is told repeatedly that they have to and multiple players have been suspended for this before!)

As for the "watching film" bit, I think we're reading too much into a throwaway comment.

Adderall, Ritalin, Provigil - they're all like academic PED's. Like "little blue pills" for the cognitive mind. I could see where a professional athlete would find the stuff useful. Particularly someone trying to grasp all of the intricacies of a new defensive system. And it's not very difficult to get an ADD diagnosis just to get the "helper" prescription. The irony, though, is that, if he was really taking it, he shouldn't be overlooking these small but important details like league notification.

 

[DaBruinz]

Adderall, Ritalin, Provigil - they're all like academic PED's. Like "little blue pills" for the cognitive mind. I could see where a professional athlete would find the stuff useful. Particularly someone trying to grasp all of the intricacies of a new defensive system. And it's not very difficult to get an ADD diagnosis just to get the "helper" prescription. The irony, though, is that, if he was really taking it, he shouldn't be overlooking these small but important details like league notification.

From my understanding, the league had some knowledge of it because he disclosed at the Combine that he had ADHD and was taking medication for it. So, for the league to pretend like it didn't know was BS to begin with.

I think the league's handling of it, as with many other things, has been extremely poor.

 

[jmt57]

I was going to say that suspended players are not allowed to practice, attend meetings, or use team facilities during their suspension; then I recalled other players like Santonio Holmes being able to do just that. Apparently what a player can and cannot do during his suspension is dependent on what he was suspended for.

Jets' Holmes isn't completely banned - NYPOST.com

The rules were changed "several years ago," Aiello said, to allow players serving less than a one-year drug suspension to have access to their team's facility.

The change only applies to players suspended for substance abuse. Players banned for steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs (such as the Jets' Calvin Pace last year) or for violating the league's conduct policy must remain away from their team's facility and not have official contact with the team.

So since Spikes was suspended for having a performance-enhancing drug then he is not allowed to use the team's facilities, attend meetings, or practice with the team. But if the NFL determined that Spikes was using those same drugs recreationally, then he would be clear to come to Gillette and work out.

Makes perfect sense to me . . .


If he's studying film at home that Mayo or another player passed along to him, I wouldn't characterize that as "official contact with the team", though with Goodell and the NFL you never know for sure. Earlier this year Aiello said a Tampa Bay player violated the terms of his suspension by getting a ticket and watching the game from the seats as a spectator.