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Alaina Getzenberg
Orchard Park, NY-General Manager of Buffalo Bills, Brandon Beane, announced Friday that the team will be without two of its additions of free agents: the defensive Tackle Larry Ogunjobi and the defensive wing Michael Hoecht, during the first six games of the season due to violating the NFL policy against drugs that increase the performance.
“It is not ideal to have two guys with that, but both boys have never had any problems outside the field,” Beane said. “It is a difficult lesson where you get your supplements or what happened.”
Both players will keep the team during the low season program and the training camp and then return to the team’s facilities after four weeks and play after six. Beane said that Bills are treating the suspensions as they know that a couple of players will be injured during the training camp and should start the season in the injured reserve. He also said: “If they were boys that this had happened before, we would probably have avoided them.”
Objunobi, who was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday for the salary space of the lid, learned of his positive test near the moment he was finishing his one -year contract with the Bills and that the team was not aware before doing so.
“I understand the league, we have the obligation to understand what we put in our body and assume all the responsibility of that,” Ogunjobi said Friday. “… I took full responsibility. It was a mistake. It was an accident. And I accept my punishment. Sometimes, you don’t know what it is. And this is one of those cases. But I think it was best to be honest … the organization handled it masterfully. They welcomed me with open arms. They understood the situation. They have treated me with nothing more than open arms and class.”
Beane said the Bills would not have signed two players facing six games suspensions if they had known about Obunjobi’s positive test before accepting the terms. He pointed out that once they found out, many defensive tacle had signed elsewhere.
The general manager said that Ogunjobi entered his office on Thursday and discussed the matter. The news delayed his firm from Thursday to Friday. Beane said that development caused new contractual elements that the team needed to work before signing it.
“Give [Ogunjobi] Cause of credit is early in the process, “said Beane.” The League does not even know about [the positive test]The way an independent group does. But he was very direct. Larry, he was from Pittsburgh [Walter Payton] Man of the year. He is a good man. He has played eight years in the league and never had an error and, therefore, that is obviously frustrating for him and a little reverse for us, but we have spoken, we are in a good place, but that is part of the delay [in his signing]”
When the general manager called the League about Obunjobi’s positive test, he said that the NFL was not aware because there is more than one sample taken. The results of the second sample return three weeks after the first, and until both are tested, the NFL is not notified.
The team was aware of Hoecht’s suspension before accepting the terms. Hoecht, who accepted a three -year agreement, discovered that he had positive three weeks in the low season for “some form of testosterone in my system.” He gave the teams interested in the anticipated notice of the violation of free agency.
Hoecht, who spent the last four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, said he built a relationship and trust with a coach for a few years, and that led him to stop being attentive when he verified the substances. He said he would like other NFL players and younger athletes to learn from him.
“It was a mistake,” said Hoecht. “It was careless. It is completely my responsibility. And it is something that I will have to possess, something that I will appear on the best side and use it as motivation and as fuel.”
