Actually, I think you do have your answer already. He played nearly the whole season, getting tested very frequently after he tested positive and as the season went on, his play actually improved. Given that, I suspect this next season will see little drop and may actually see improved play as he will more experience and I suspect that he will have more than a small chip on his shoulder to show he is clean and OK.

I don't think you can take his performance in the months after he was using as an indicator of how he will perform after being completely clean for over a year (we assume).

We have no idea the how, why, when, or even what regarding his steroid use. We just know something was there. Now we can wait and see what happens going forward.

Like I said, most guys perform the same before and after a positive test. Hopefully Cushing is like that. I know that his football instincts were a big part of his success last year and those will be unaffected. I am willing to hope for the best and I see no reason not to.

Care to provide a couple of examples ?

What about if he actually does have a testicular tumor, and that is what is producing the hCG in the tests? The doc says that kind of tumor is usually very agressive. If he gets tested some more and he actually does have tumors, then he may never play again.

But he was informed of the test results in September and would have known shortly there after what they meant. I am assuming he would have been tested immediately after if he truly was not aware of how the result occured.

Julius Peppers is an obvious example. He tested positive as a rookie and then went on with no problems after that. Luis Castillo is another. I'd have to look at who has actually tested to list more specific names, but I also can't recall anyone testing positive and then falling off in production in a big way.

I assume that most of the time the guys either were using them for a set purpose the first time (injuries) or they just got better at hiding them in the future. But I can't think of anyone in the 2000s who was an obvious steroid creation who just disappeared after the positive.

shawne merriman.

Yup, that's very troubling to think his performance and on-field presense might fall off as much as Merrimans did ? Let's face it though, it could be that.

Merriman also has a major knee injury. His decline coincided with the positive test and the knee injury.

IMO it's hard to separate the things.

This is totally false and I don't know where you guys are coming up with this idea.

Merriman before the positive test had 10 sacks and the ROY in 2005. This was the year he tested positive.

Then he sits out 4 games during his 2nd season and still gets 17 sacks in 12 games AFTER the positive test in 2006.

Then he comes back the following year with 12.5 sacks and a career high 68 tackles in 2007. Obviously he had no fall off after his positive test.

THEN HE TEARS UP HIS KNEE. He misses 15 games in 2008. He returns in 2009 and gets just 4 sacks.

You are seriously twisting facts when you claim Merriman fell off after the steroid suspension. He clearly did not and only fell off 3 years later after a blown out knee.

So you're saying Merrimans dramatic decline in production was due more to a knee injury than his discontinued use of the juice ?
At any rate, one again I hope you're right about Cushings return to 2009 form when he's back on the field ? I know I had reservations about his pick,
but his first year turned out OK (I guess ?), so hopefully I'm wrong again about my expectations for his performance in his second year when he comes off of suspension.

No stranger to performance-enhancing drugs himself as an admitted former steroid user during his playing days, former Denver Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski was critical of suspended Houston Texans linebacker during an interview on SIRIUS radio today.
"Now, as far as Brian Cushing(notes), here's the deal: The only way you can get that substance that he took, hCG, in your body is to inject it, okay?" Romanowski said. "So let's get that clear. So his sob story on TV was, I'm just going to say, was a total lie, okay? … Do you think when he was getting injected in his ass that he didn't know what was going on? Well, bullcrap. Let's get real. Be honest about it, Brian.
"I'm sorry you got caught but be honest about it. What that substance is is a substance from pregnant women's urine and what it does is when you have taken a cycle of steroids it turns your system back on from being shut down. It is very, very common in bodybuilding. That is a bodybuilding supplement, or a bodybuilding drug, where when these bodybuilders go on massive doses of steroids for months at a time, they will take that drug to turn their normal system back on and get it working again."
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slu...n_html-2010521