A couple of things.
1) You're believing that it was Adderall because they say so...I find that incredibly unlikely and the only thing to go in his his statement. I'm not buying it.
What you believe to be unlikely doesn't have any bearing on what happens in the world.
2) I stand corrected on the first offense not being suspension but the body of what I said still remains. I doubt anyone is really getting caught with Aderall. It's naive to think that after all of the "Adderall" suspensions, someone would unknowingly take it. If you need it, you can get it by filing a therapeutic-use exemption.
If you had actually bothered to read the interview he gave, he explained the situation. But, clearly you didn't bother to read it.
"Technically, I've had a prescription for it since I was nine," he said. "Like I said, it costs money to get all that stuff situated, money which I didn't have to spend. It was my fault. I should have brought it to the NFL and said, 'hey, this is my prescription' before it got to that point, but it wasn't like I was using it as something to — I guess — boost my ratings, know what I mean? I've been taking it since I was nine — that and Ritalin."
3) HIPAA protects your rights but there is nothing preventing the NFL from (not requiring ) requesting players to waive their right to that privacy. The NFL doesn't do it because they don't want transparency.
Transparency? Fine. Post your health records so everyone can see. Then let's talk about transparency. Otherwise, it's none of your business. Plain and simple.
A player can waive that right anytime they want to. Ever see one do it to prove their innocence? They're Lance Armstrong proclaiming their innocence in public but when it comes time to grant access to those results, they make you never hear a peep. All they have to do is appoint someone from the NFL to be the representative and the player would allow them to receive and share the drug testing policy without exposing their injury history or any other history but the drug testing results.
First of all, yes they can waive their right. But why should they? Their private health issues are NONE of your damn business. Who the hell are you to say that it is?
Secondly, just because they waive their "HIPAA" rights, doesn't give the NFL the right to broadcast that information. Case in point. A recent article regarding "Baby Boards" at doctor's offices. According to HIPAA, those boards are illegal. Why? Because the pictures of babies are considered a "type of protected health information". So, despite the fact that parents are giving them permission to post them by sending the pictures to the doctor, they aren't allowed to.
Baby Pictures at the Doctor’s? Cute, Sure, but Illegal - NYTimes.com
Under the law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, baby photos are a type of protected health information,
Bringing in Lance Armstrong when the situations are significantly different shows just how much you are reaching.
Tyms shared his history. He was diagnosed with ADHD at age 9 and has had prescriptions for Adderall and Ritolin since that time. That's all you need to know. Oh wait. It's not. Because, got forbid that we take him at his word. Even if it was an "NFL Representative" isn't it naive of you to think that the representative wouldn't present the picture that the NFL wanted instead of the "truth".
BTW, did you know that the NFL doesn't accept the exemptions that are filed with the NCAA for players? Why not? Why is it that the NFL doesn't automatically file this information when it's brought up at the Combine and Pro-Days? Why does the NFL force these players to pay filing fees and doctors fees and force them to jump through all sorts of hoops before giving the exemption? Particularly for players who have been on the drug since before they started college.
