As you know, NFLDraftBible.com reported earlier today that Brian Cushing and Clay Matthews have tested positive for steroids at the Combine; while Vontae Davis and Percy Harvin tested positive for marijuana. But various sources have come out and shot down these rumors.
The NFL itself has come out and released a statement. Their statement was:
"Neither the 32 clubs nor the league office know the results of drug or steroid tests taken at the 2009 Combine. The independent medical advisors who administer the tests have notified in writing those players and only those players who tested positive at the Combine. Unfortunately, rumors about draft eligible players, including rumors about test results, begin to circulate every year at this time. Many of these rumors are circulated for self-serving reasons and they are terribly unfair to the players and their families."
So basically, the league and its 32 teams still haven't received the list of players, if any, that have failed their Combine drug tests. The only ones who know are the people who administered the tests and the players themselves.
I did e-mail the NFL's Senior VP of Public Relations, Greg Aiello, to ask him a few questions about how exactly the notification system works if a player did indeed fail a drug test at the Combine, but he just told me that the league is only releasing the above statement on this topic.
Meanwhile, the agent of Vontae Davis has released a statement denying these rumors:
“Last night it was reported on an internet site that my client, Vontae Davis, tested positive for marijuana at the combine. The report cited unnamed sources including an NFL team. Neither Vontae nor our office has received any notification of any positive test whether for marijuana or any other banned substance. In addition, we have been informed by several of our NFL contacts that they have not been notified of any drug testing results from the combine.”
Assuming the NFL isn't lying - and that Vontae's agent isn't lying - we can assume Davis did not fail his drug test. Why? Well the NFL said that those who administer the tests have already notified those players who have tested positive. And if Davis hasn't been notified already, it's unlikely he ever tested positive in the first place.
USC head coach Pete Carroll has also denied the rumors about his two linebackers' positive drug tests - saying that if these reports were true (which he claims they are not), then "Clay and Cush would have been notified three weeks ago, which they weren't."
So things for NFLDraftBible.com aren't looking good right now. And if I was a representative of any of these players who are being (what seems to be) falsely identified, I'd start looking into what legal actions I could take against the web site.
One interesting note is that we are still yet to hear any kind of denial from Parcy Harvin's representation.