The Screaming Viking

It looks like the positive test was confirmed by an independant lab from both samples.  The article on SI doesn’t tell the readers what drug he was using.  I had heard/read that it was Meth.  ESPN reports that it was meth.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR filed court documents Monday night that show an independent laboratory found an illegal substance in the urine sample that led to Jeremy Mayfield’s suspension for a failed drug test.

The documents, part of NASCAR’s response to Mayfield’s lawsuit to have his indefinite suspension lifted, show that Medtox Laboratories in Minnesota tested both his “A” and backup “B” samples last week and “confirmed the presence” of a substance that is blacked out in the filing.

Both sides are due in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, and Mayfield is hoping a judge reinstates him in time to travel to this weekend’s race at Daytona International Speedway.

NASCAR, which is countersuing, argued in its filing Monday that the “safety risk is simply too significant to let Mayfield back on the track.”

“No one but Mayfield knows whether his (drug name redacted) use was an isolated event,” NASCAR said in its brief.

Mayfield has been suspended since May 9 for failing a random drug test eight days earlier for what NASCAR has deemed “a dangerous, illegal, banned substance.” Mayfield indicated in an affidavit filed last week that he tested positive for methamphetamines, which he denied using.

Mayfield has previously blamed his positive test result on the combination of Adderall for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Claritin-D for allergies, but that explanation was debunked by NASCAR’s program administrator.

In Monday’s filing, NASCAR claimed Mayfield provided a prescription for Adderall that he received from the “Vitality Anti-Aging Center & Medical Spa” in Hickory, and not his personal physician.

Mayfield’s lawyer’s are challenging the validity of NASCAR’s drug testing process in their bid to have Mayfield reinstated. Mayfield has missed seven races since his suspension, which also covers his role as owner of Mayfield Motorsports.

He said in his affidavit last week that his career has been ruined by the suspension, and he’s been forced to borrow money from family and sell personal assets to pay his living expenses. His wife, Shana, is currently listed as the owner of the No. 41 Toyota, but she has not sent it to the track to compete the last five weeks.

NASCAR argued in its Monday filings that Mayfield Motorsports can send the team to the track with a substitute driver, as it did the first two weeks of his suspension.

The sanctioning body also cautioned against allowing Mayfield to fight his positive drug test in court instead of abiding by the toughened policy, which calls for him to participate in a reinstatement program.

“It is not in the public interest to send the message that (drug name redacted) and other drug users can simply ignore a sports league’s decisions by racing to the courthouse to overturn the league’s decision — all by merely alleging procedural imperfections, without any evidence that some imperfection actually led to a false positive,” NASCAR wrote.

Trent Green was the guest MMQB writer for Peter King on si.com.

I was with him up to this comment:

For me, now is when reality kicks in. For those of you that think retired athletes sleep in, work out, play a little golf, maybe get a massage, I’ve got news for you: The Greens would make for a great reality show to destroy all those Hollywood stereotypes about retirement. Because youth baseball practices and games consume a lot of our evenings, we rarely have time for the five of us to sit down for dinner. We found a rare opportunity last week and about five minutes into the meal, Janelle, 3, says she’s not hungry anymore and refuses to sit in her seat. Just then, Derek, 9, reaches for a bowl of fruit and one of his elbows knocks over his glass of milk. TJ, 11, goes into big brother mode and begins the verbal jabs. As my wife Julie hurried for some towels, the boys continue jawing and Janelle starts running around the table singing some song, REALLY LOUD. As Julie returns with the towels, she sees me sitting there, mouth open, watching all of this unfold. She gets my attention and I just begin to laugh. I look at her and say, “If people only knew.” Welcome to retirement, Trent!

Trent, go fuck yourself.  Tons of people deal with the same things while still working 8 to 10 hours a day.  Balance work and your family at the same time…then you have something to complain about you over paid talentless fuck.

Early rumors are that Yao Ming will be out for all of next season and possibly beyond.  It looks like the foot that has been broken 3 times now is not healing at all.

From Yahoo! sports:

As the NBA draft approached, the grim truth about Yao Ming’s(notes) broken left foot hung like an anvil over the Houston Rockets. The fear isn’t that he’s just lost for next season, but longer.

The Rockets and Yao’s reps are frightened over his future, and the concern is the most base of all: Does Yao Ming ever play again?

“The realization has hit them that this is grave,” one NBA general manager said.

For now, the Rockets have privately told league peers it could be a full season before Yao might be able to return to basketball. Multiple league executives, officials close to Yao and two doctors with knowledge of the diagnoses are describing a troubling re-fracture of his navicular bone. Three pins were inserted a year ago, but the foot cracked in the playoffs and isn’t healing.

“It sounds like he’s missing most of next season, if not the entire 82 games,” one league executive who has had recent discussions with the Houston front office told Yahoo! Sports. “That’s all that [the Rockets] will concede quietly, but they know it’s probably much worse.”

Houston general manager Daryl Morey refused comment on Monday and a team spokesman said the Rockets will not have further comment until Yao undergoes additional medical tests.

There’s no reason for the Rockets to disclose the severity of the injury, nor the uncertainty over Yao’s future. Before the Rockets go public with a dire diagnosis, they plan to send him to three more specialists this week, a source said. For now, the Rockets have season tickets and sponsorships to sell. For now, the Rockets will publicly decry these doomsday revelations as premature, but this is the reality that they’re working under within the organization.

This has turned into an impossible situation for the Rockets’ capable GM. Even if Yao plays again, Morey knows it’s just a matter of time until his lower body breaks down. His feet and ankles just can’t support the mobility of his 7-foot-6 frame.

With four surgeries in three years, the Rockets worried they were reaching a breaking point. Well, it’s here. After missing 86 games in the previous three seasons, the 28-year-old Yao missed a mere five this past regular season before injuring his foot during the Rockets’ second-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

It wasn’t until last week when Houston issued a statement saying Yao’s fractured foot hadn’t healed properly, that he would be unavailable “indefinitely.” Prior to Thursday’s draft, Morey tried desperately to trade into the high lottery to take Spanish prodigy Ricky Rubio(notes). Houston needed a young star, but had too few assets to make a deal with Memphis or Sacramento. It seemed odd to teams that Houston had thrown Shane Battier(notes) and Aaron Brooks(notes) into offers within weeks of pushing the NBA champion Lakers to seven games in the Western Conference semifinals.

Now, the Rockets have tough decisions to make: Do they keep pushing Tracy McGrady(notes) and his expiring contract on the market or let the $22 million expire next summer? So far, Morey is getting offered bad contracts and junk talent for him. What’s more, does Houston re-sign Ron Artest(notes) to a $40 million-plus contract when contention is no longer viable? Why not create cap space for the summers of 2010 and 2011? Why not get younger now? Yao could opt out of his contract next summer, but odds are that Houston won’t be so fortunate.

The Rockets should do themselves a favor and just start over. That isn’t easy in a sophisticated and rabid NBA market like Houston, but what everyone long suspected has reached fruition: Yao and McGrady are no longer a faulty foundation, but a collapsed one. Houston needs to proceed with an understanding that they’re no longer chasing the Lakers, but beginning again.

Rest assured, Houston has long been fearful that Yao’s responsibilities to the Chinese national team were rapidly contributing to his breakdown, and perhaps they’ve finally been met. Yao wouldn’t have missed the Beijing Olympics for the world, but it was clear he wasn’t fully healed in those Games. The Rockets paid a price for his nationalism, his obligation and now the darkest fears are close to confirmation: It isn’t just a season on the brink for Yao Ming, but perhaps a career.

I heard about this Friday and didn’t get much detail on it.  It’s good to see the courts rule that we don’t have to throw out test results because a particular group might score low on the test.  It’s not going to amount to anything for white males as a whole, but at least these guys got some vindication.  I don’t understand a lot of the rulings that come down from the SCOTUS.  I get that the people don’t have a right to promotion, but it seems to me that throwing out test results based on possible litigation is a bit wrong.  Had it been a minority group that scored high and the results thrown out there would have been holy hell raised.

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WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a group of white firefighters in Connecticut were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision endorsed by high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The 5-4 ruling poses a potential complication to Sotomayor’s nomination, with confirmation hearings set to start in July. Already, supporters and critics of Sotomayor are seizing on the decision in an effort to defend their stance.

In the high-profile, controversial case, white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., argued they were discriminated against when the city tossed out the results of a promotion exam because too few minorities scored high enough on it.

Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the opinion in favor of Frank Ricci and his fellow firefighters who sued the city of New Haven.

“The city’s action in discarding the tests violated (federal law),” the Supreme Court majority wrote Monday, adding that the city’s “race-based rejection of the test results” could not be justified.

The city argued its action was prompted by concern that disgruntled black firefighters would sue. But that reasoning didn’t hold sway with the court’s majority.

“Fear of litigation alone cannot justify the city’s reliance of race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” the court ruled.

This decision, like many of the close cases before the high court, divided along its familiar ideological lines. Kennedy was joined by the four conservatives on the court in issuing the majority decision.

The court’s more liberal members joined Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent which she read from the bench. “The white firefighters who scored high on New Haven’s promotional exams understandably attract the court’s sympathy,” she said. “But they had no vested right to promotion.”

The firefighters are expected to hold a press conference Monday afternoon in New Haven.

The 20 firefighters — 19 white and one Hispanic — who were denied promotions claimed city officials discriminated against them because they were more concerned about potential complaints of Civil Rights Act violations than their performance on advancement exams. The white firefighters argued discrimination is discrimination no matter what color it takes, and therefore, the city did violate the Civil Rights Act in not promoting them.

Sotomayor was one of three appeals court judges who earlier ruled that New Haven officials acted properly.

The reversal could be used as ammunition by some senators who don’t want to see Sotomayor confirmed. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill swiftly issued statements on the ruling Monday and scheduled media appearances to discuss it.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, applauded the decision and suggested trouble ahead for Sotomayor.

“The Supreme Court today reminded all courts and governments that equal justice under the law means refusing to tip the scale in favor of one race over another,” he said in a written statement. “The Senate Judiciary Committee should carefully examine Judge Sotomayor’s role in the Second Circuit’s opinion on this case. Discrimination and racial preferences have no place in our courts, let alone on the highest court in the land.”

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said “it would be wrong” to use the decision to criticize Sotomayor and that her panel’s decision exhibited “judicial restraint.”

He said the Supreme Court’s ruling is “likely to result in cutbacks on important protections for American families.”

“This is a cramped decision that threatens to erode these protections and to harm the efforts of state and local governments that want to build the most qualified workforces,” Leahy said in a statement.

Sotomayor’s views on race have been the focal point of criticism as she seeks a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land. She has also been scrutinized for her statement outside the court that a “wise, Latina woman” would come to better conclusions more often than a white man.

Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing is currently scheduled to begin on July 13. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told “FOX News Sunday” that her nomination must have a full airing before a vote, and that could mean delaying the hearing scheduled by Democratic senators, a scenario that is unlikely to happen.

“Just a day or so ago, we discovered that there are 300 boxes of additional material that has just been discovered from her time working with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund,” McConnell said. “The committee needs to have access to that material and time to work through it … so we know all the facts before we vote on a person who’s up for a lifetime job.”

If confirmed, Sotomayor will replace Justice David Souter, whose retirement coincides with the end of the court’s session on Monday. In April’s oral argument of the firefighter case, Souter described it as a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. Souter joined the minority in Monday’s decision.

Souter said he’d retire when the court rises for the summer recess. He was named to the court in 1990.

As Souter retires to New Hampshire, four justices are heading to Europe for summer teaching jobs, including in Austria, Ireland and Italy.