In the recent development of the case of Pat and Kevin Williams against the National Football League revealed a bigger issue on the use of
Starcaps in the league. They dragged the Buffalo Bills into the controversy saying that the players of the team used the same supplement which caused the Williamses to be suspended for 4 games last year. Although they were able to get an injunction on the suspension from the federal judge handling the case. Aside from this, Pat and Kevin Williams sued the NFL for violation of the leagues’ agreement with the players union. They were suing the NFL for $10 million in damages.

The lawyers of these two viking defensive linemen is planning to ask the court to subpoena the Buffalo Bills to produce documents related to the use of the supplement Starcaps by their players. One of their allegations is the possibility that the team officials know or advised the players to take the dietary supplement. According to Peter Ginsberg, the lawyer of the Williamses, said in the hearing last week that the supplement is freely distributed in the locker rooms of the Buffalo Bills. He further said that the Starcaps is used by a number of players in the team.

Starcaps, is a dietary supplement used in weight loss. Unfortunately the supplement was contaminated with a prescription drug which can masked steroids use. This substance is banned by the league.

Ginsberg informed U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeanne Grahamhe that he has already contacted NFL lawyers to serve subpoenas on the Bills. The letter also targeted the subscription service that provided a hotline for players to call for information about supplements. However, when Ginsberg was asked where did he get the information about the use of Starcaps by the Bills, he declined to comment.

The Bills vice president of communications Scott Berchtold reacted on this report. He said in a statement, “We have never heard these allegations, and we are not aware of anyone representing the Bills distributing StarCaps, an over-the-counter weight-loss supplement, to players.” He further argued that the allegations were made by an attorney and not by any player.

Bumetanide, which was the source of all these problems in the NFL was detected in Starcaps during the tests conducted on these players. Although the players argued that they do not know that Starcaps contains a banned substance. The manufacturer, Balanced Health Products did not disclose in its product the said substance. The company producing the dietary supplements already made an scapegoat on this saying that their products were contaminated in Peru.

Judge Magnuson who is handling the case questioned some of the decision of the NFL in its previous ruling. He said that NFL violated public policy by not warning the NFL Players Association that they already know that Starcaps contains Bumetanide.  An independent testing laboratory found out the banned substance years ago. The NFL was also accused by the Williamses of violating the Minnesota state laws specifically the Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Act.

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