I’d like to give Quinn Smith the benefit of the doubt but he isn’t making a strong case for that to happen.
The 22-year-old defensive tackle with the Concordia Stingers tested positive for a banned substance and went into the CFL draft with an asterisk beside his name.
He claims he did his research on the substance he took and says it was bad research so that’s how he was caught using a substance which arguably helped him be one of the top players in the CIS.
On the surface, I would give him a pass but when you get more information about the situation you have to give your head a shake instead.
You see, the substance he tested positive for was Stanozolol.
The same substance linked to baseball players Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro.
The same stuff found in Ben Johnson 25 years ago at the Olympics.
So unless young Mr. Smith was living in a cave there is really no excuse for not knowing this stuff was a no-no.
This is a university kid so you’d think research was something he was used to. He is a member of one of the top schools in the country and I’m almost as positive as his drug test the trainers for this team knew what Stanozolol was and would have warned him.
Geez, even the water boys could have googled this drug and told him to back away from it.
Smith was outstanding at the recent CFL combine where the six-foot-two, 305 pounder ran a 4.82 forty, benched 225 lbs 28 times, had an 8.3 ft. broad jump and a 27.5“ vertical jump.
Last year, Smith was clocked in at 5.11 in the forty.
He says his mistake was not checking with team officials about the drug and shouldn’t be dumped on or judged by others as he enters the CFL draft.
Now to be fair, officials with Concordia should have been on top of this after they saw the improvement in Smith so they get a slap on the wrist as well but Mr. Smith needs to own this and not brush it off as poor judgment and a lack of research.
In this day and age, information can be had pretty much anywhere so that excuse doesn’t pass the test and neither did Quinn Smith.
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