The Arizona Cardinals suffered a blow to the start of the 2022 regular season when it was announced Monday that wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins received a six-game suspension. The suspension came under the league’s policy for performance-enhancing substances.
Under the current collective bargaining agreement, a positive for an anabolic substance receives a six-game suspension.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, he is not appealing, but Hopkins’ brand agent, released a statement to explain how he came to be suspended.
Today the NFL announced their decision to suspend DeAndre Hopkins as a result of a November drug test that came back with trace elements of a banned substance. DeAndre and everyone who works with him is completely shocked by this finding because he is extremely diligent about what he puts in his body. His October and December tests were negative and we are investigating how the November test came back positive. DeAndre is committed to demonstrating that he did not knowingly take a banned substance. He has never once tested positive throughout his 10-year career.
We’re currently testing every product he used to figure out how this could have happened and will release any new information as soon as we have it.
Why could Hopkins do all this and not appeal the suspension?
This move appears to be about perception and image, which is what his brand manager deals with.
Accepting the suspension means he will miss games early in the season rather than later if it ended up getting upheld. It also means he accepts that, even if he did not knowingly take the substance, he is ultimately responsible for it.
But what this does is get the notion out publicly that he did not knowingly use a banned substance, which matters for legacy and perception.
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