Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver has been suspended for a minimum of one year for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, the league announced Monday.Bryant’s Bryant suspension, which is without pay, begins immediately, the NFL said. He was scheduled to earn $600,000 in 2016
General manager Kevin Colbert said the Steelers “are very disappointed” with Bryant for his suspension.
“He is at a crossroads of his professional life, and he needs to understand significant changes need to occur in his personal life if he wants to regain his career as a Pittsburgh Steeler,” Colbert said.
“We are hopeful that Martavis will take the necessary steps to develop the discipline in his personal life to become a successful player and a good teammate.”
Bryant decided not to appeal the suspension. His agent Tom Santanello had said on Saturday that Bryant had planned to appeal.
The suspension is related to NFL drug testing, a source told ESPN.
“We’re all stunned, me included,” Fettner told USA Today Sports. “We clearly miscalculated the issue. His isn’t a party issue. It’s a coping issue and a depression issue, and he’s got to take care of it.
“This is the biggest cry for help I’ve ever seen, and that hurts. It hurts us to see. He’s 24 years old, and he’s got to get right, whatever it is. If you talk to anybody’s family that has depression, they will be talking about these same things — the [despondence], the withdrawal, the head-in-the-sand despair — just trying to cope.”
After returning from his four-game suspension, Bryant had a productive 2015 season for the Steelers, hauling in 50 receptions for 765 yards and six touchdowns in 11 games.
Pittsburgh’s decision to sign receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey to a three-year extension was a direct result of Bryant’s potential absence in 2016, a source told ESPN. The Steelers likely would have re-signed Heyward-Bey, but if not for the possibility of Bryant’s absence, Heyward-Bey wouldn’t have had the leverage to earn a three-year deal. Pittsburgh also signed tight end Ladarius Green to a four-year, $20 million deal.
LAS VEGAS — O.J. Simpson, the decorated football superstar and Hollywood actor who was acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend but later was found liable in a separate civil trial, has died. He was 76.
The family announced on Simpson’s official X account that Simpson died Wednesday after battling prostate cancer. He died in Las Vegas, officials there said Thursday.
“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace,” the family posted on Simpson’s X account.
Simpson earned fame, fortune and adulation through football and show business, but his legacy was forever changed by the June 1994 knife slayings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles.
On June 12, the bodies of Brown Simpson and Goldman were found outside her condo in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Simpson was a person of interest in the murders, but rather than turn himself in five days later, he led police on a low-speed chase throughout Los Angeles as a passenger in a white Ford Bronco driven by former NFL player Al Cowlings. An estimated television audience of 95 million watched the drama unfold, with live coverage interrupting regular programming, including the NBA Finals.
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