Those who were following the NFL in the mid-2000s would remember Shawne Merriman. He cut an intimidating figure with his chiseled frame, a patented scowl, and his mohawk. And, most of all, he was the best pass-rusher in the league with the best sack dance in the land. “Lights Out”, baby.
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Playing for the San Diego Chargers, he won every accolade an edge player could dream of from 2005 to 2007. However, his success was put in disrepute when he was caught using PEDs in 2006.
Injuries ultimately cut his NFL career short in 2012, at the tender age of 28. However, his downward spiral began in 2006, with the PED suspension.
Earlier this week, Merriman appeared on the Barstool Sports podcast Bussin’ With The Boys, where the 2005 Defensive Rookie of the Year spoke about how the incident transpired:
“When I got suspended, I got thrown right in the mix with all of them [involved with the BALCO scandal]… I’ve never seen a doctor for s***. I got suspended for something that was over the counter, like you can go to any vitamin shop or whatever. And what happened was they put on a list, but from the previous it wasn’t there,” Merriman told podcast hosts, former NFL pros Will Compton and Taylor Lewan.
The former Chargers star has always maintained that he never knowingly consumed an illegal supplement. However, he admitted that he was so sure of his innocence that he didn’t even check the league’s list of banned substances.
“Me being me, I didn’t look at anything. So when the PA (Player’s Association) sends out the new list [of banned supplements] before the season, it was on there… I just balled it up and put it in my locker because I’m not taking anything different.”
Merriman’s strong reaction to Roger Goodell’s statement
Merriman’s success as a rookie in 2005 became a double-edged sword. It was great that he was becoming a top player very early in his career. But the unprecedented success also made the league suspicious. He underwent a whopping 20 drug tests during the 2006 offseason. One too many.
“I got tested during the offseason, and at the time I was tested 20 times. The 20th test that I took, I failed… Because they were testing the s*** out of my a**, like all the time, dude. *laughs* They were like, ‘hold on, this rookie out here, he’s going bonkers’.”
Merriman explained that after he tested positive, he attempted to explain to the league that he didn’t know a supplement he was taking regularly was on the banned list.
Despite appeals from the player for fines in lieu of the suspension, the league stood firm and slapped a four-game ban on him at the start of the season.
Despite the suspension, Merriman had a good season, and was a Pro Bowler and 1st-Team All-Pro in 2006. In subsequent seasons, the league implemented what became commonly known as the “Shawne Merriman Rule”. It prohibits players suspended for PEDs in a given year to win awards that season.
Amidst all this, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did something that Merriman greatly appreciated.
“[Roger Goodell] did something that he didn’t have to do. He felt that I was being unfairly treated because of this thing. Roger Goodell actually came out and told the public that I had tested 20 times, 19 of them clean, without a problem, and this is the 20th time… Because he also felt like, okay these are the rules, but how I was being treated at the time for that, wasn’t fair.”
Goodell’s was never viewed as a player’s commissioner, which made his act of support all the more surprising. Merriman even called the commissioner to thank him for having his back.
Merriman was third in the Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2006. The following year he earned Pro Bowl and 2nd-Team All-Pro honors. However, he ended up missing 35 games over the next five seasons before retiring prematurely in 2012, ending his career with the Buffalo Bills.
