Agent fires back after NFL suspends Cowboys’ Quinn (PEDs)

The NFL suspended Dallas Cowboys defensive end Robert Quinn two games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, drawing a quick rebuke from the player’s agent.Agent Sean Kiernan released a statement saying that Quinn tested positive on April 2 for low levels of Probenecid, a medication to treat gout but also used as a masking agent for steroids in the 1980s and ’90s. Kiernan maintains that records show that a pharmacy filled a prescription for Probenecid before completing Quinn’s seizure medication, thereby contaminating Quinn’s pills.The tested levels were far below what would have needed for Probenecid to be used as a masking agent, according to Kiernan.”Our expert provided a great analogy here: Imagine a bag of rice with thousands of kernels. The level of probenecid in Rob’s system was equivalent to 1 kernel of rice in a bag among thousands,” Kiernan wrote.”I’ve been working with NFL players for 20 years, and I can’t think of a situation where I’ve been personally involved where the league was as tone deaf as it was here. Now, Rob will be punished for something that would have been impossible for him to prevent, and even though the NFL admitted during the hearing that it did not believe Rob was intentionally doping, they still suspended him.”Kiernan went on to rip NFL attorney Kevin Manara, saying he was “disgusted” by his actions before and during the hearing.Quinn, 29, suffered a fractured hand in Monday’s practice but was tentatively expected to be available for Week 1 against the New York Giants on Sept. 8.Quinn came to Dallas in a trade with the Miami Dolphins and played for the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams in seven previous NFL seasons. He led Miami with 6.5 sacks in 2018 and has 69.0 sacks in his career.