Andrew Harris Suspended 2 Games After Failing Drug Test

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Belize City Lion
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https://3downnation.com/2019/08/26/bomb ... drug-test/

From the surprise discovery that Fajardo can throw the ball, to the free 2 points thanks to lightening in Montreal, and now no Andrew Harris for the back-to-back series against Winnipeg... the Riders are the luckiest CFL team in 2019.
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Hambone
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Belize City Lion wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:00 am
https://3downnation.com/2019/08/26/bomb ... drug-test/

From the surprise discovery that Fajardo can throw the ball, to the free 2 points thanks to lightening in Montreal, and now no Andrew Harris for the back-to-back series against Winnipeg... the Riders are the luckiest CFL team in 2019.
Wonder if he'll appeal and drag things out long enough to get through the LDC and Banjo Bowl?
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Toppy Vann
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The article says Harris is tested more often than any other player on that team.
What is that about?

This whole thing plus his denial and how he has said he has been working on his flexibility not in the gym bulking up recently makes me wonder if he got this via nutritional supplements entirely accidentally as he suggests:
The timeline makes it very clear — I was not using a banned substance for performance enhancing purposes, nor was I aware that I was taking any supplements with any banned substances in them. Based on the fact pattern, this is clearly a case of product contamination.
Now the Bombers best find a good chemist .


Harris was on track for possibly MOP this year as is Trevor Harris and who knows - what about Willie Jefferson.

Harris is an opposing player who I admire for how he plays and how great a CFL ambassador he is.

Recently pre - game he named every Canadian RB in the CFL. Having missed the HAM guy he came back to add that name on the next question. It was not just about him.
Last edited by Toppy Vann on Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Belize City Lion
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Hambone wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:10 am
Belize City Lion wrote:
Mon Aug 26, 2019 9:00 am
https://3downnation.com/2019/08/26/bomb ... drug-test/

From the surprise discovery that Fajardo can throw the ball, to the free 2 points thanks to lightening in Montreal, and now no Andrew Harris for the back-to-back series against Winnipeg... the Riders are the luckiest CFL team in 2019.
Wonder if he'll appeal and drag things out long enough to get through the LDC and Banjo Bowl?
I doubt an appeal is even an option. Drug testing is black and white, fail or pass. Nothing to appeal except maybe ask to be retested if you can show that the sample may have been mishandled or contaminated. But if he tested positive for only trace amounts 6 weeks ago, would a fresh test now even be relevant to the previous result?

If it could be appealed it would certainly be in the Bomber's best interest to have him play the next two games against the Riders and then sit for the following two against Montreal and Hamilton.
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B.C.FAN
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Harris said he has known about the positive test for three weeks. He has already appealed and both the A and B samples came back positive. There can be no further appeals.
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Toppy Vann
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I was looking to see if there have been instances of overturning drug suspensions but it's slim pickings lol.

Many denials but can't find subsequent stories (other than Silken Laumann - our rower) where the ban was overturned.

I did see this though where nutritional supplements can be contaminated with banned substances:
J Mass Spectrom. 2008 Jul;43(7):892-902. doi: 10.1002/jms.1452.
Nutritional supplements cross-contaminated and faked with doping substances.
Geyer H1, Parr MK, Koehler K, Mareck U, Schänzer W, Thevis M.
Author information

Center for Preventive Doping Research, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany. h.geyer@biochem.dshs-koeln.de
Since 2002, also products intentionally faked with high amounts of 'classic' anabolic steroids such as metandienone, stanozolol, boldenone, dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone, oxandrolone etc. have been detected on the nutritional supplement market. These anabolic steroids were not declared on the labels either. The sources of these anabolic steroids are probably Chinese pharmaceutical companies, which sell bulk material of anabolic steroids. In 2005 vitamin C, multivitamin and magnesium tablets were confiscated, which contained cross-contaminations of stanozolol and metandienone.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18563865
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Toppy Vann
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Just listened to the interview with Andrew Harris and two things Andrew Harris said jump out as to why he didn't prolong this and appeal

1. TIMING- not to drag this out.

This is consistent with my thinking that the brain trusts want this suspension over now when they're 8 and 2. This way when their starter is back they'll have Harris in full stride too.

Matt Nichols is defending him also. I doubt he'd speak up in support of him IF he doubted Harris' story.

2. ZERO TOLERANCE

Harris mentioned this as the CFL has to go along with the sports doping agencies and so will an Arbitrator (as they would use one who knows these areas).

This means an Arbitrator would base a decision on the doping guidelines and have to conclude that the presence of the PED means the two game suspension would stand.


https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video

A third factor that Dave Naylor notes who fixates on Brandon Banks who got two games not that long ago for PEDs. No one mentions this now is the rhetorical reply. It's not like a runner or a MLB home run hitter on the juice.
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ziggy
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You have to wonder if there is no action he can take to prove he ingested the drug by mistake. Can whatever supplements he was taking not be tested? I doubt he knowingly took a PED, but I’m very curious as to how one can take it mistakenly. If in good faith he took supplements that were supposed to be PED free , it would seem a law suit is in order? Imagine if other athletes are also using these supplements and they to fail their drug tests.

Sometimes we focus so much on the athlete we give a free pass to companies claiming to sell legit products. I’d like them to investigate how this happened assuming the athlete was innocent as opposed to always settling for “they must have known” so no need to look into it any further.
Last edited by ziggy on Wed Aug 28, 2019 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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David
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A couple of our players, namely Renfroe and Whyte were highly skeptical of Harris's claims of complete innocence and steadfast denial. There may be many more CFL players who have a hard time believing this story, but those were two Lions who mentioned it on Twitter.


DH :roll:
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