Steroids Dealer Provides the N.F.L. With Evidence
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
Published: May 22, 2008
David Jacobs, a convicted steroids dealer from Plano, Tex., provided documentary evidence to N.F.L. officials on Wednesday that his lawyer said tied several players to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Henry E. Hockeimer Jr., Jacobs’s lawyer, said his client gave e-mails, canceled checks and other records to N.F.L. officials at a meeting in the Dallas area.
Jacobs, who was sentenced to probation on May 1 for distributing banned substances, has said that he provided two players with steroids and human growth hormone, and that they would then supply other players.
“It was information that had previously been provided to the federal government in connection with their investigation of Mr. Jacobs,” Hockeimer, who was at the meeting, said in a phone interview. “The documents corroborate statements Jacobs has made to investigators. He provided the names of people connected to his steroid dealings.”
The names of the players were not made public Wednesday.
Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the N.F.L., declined to comment.
N.F.L. officials are expected to examine the evidence and determine whether to discipline the players. The league would probably need documentary evidence to ensure the discipline is not overruled by an arbitrator.
The New York Times reported last month that information from the government’s investigation of Jacobs had led prosecutors to investigate Matt Lehr, a lineman for the New Orleans Saints, on suspicion that he distributed performance-enhancing drugs.
Lehr’s lawyer denied that his client had sold steroids or H.G.H. and said that Jacobs fabricated information about Lehr after he refused to pay Jacobs’s legal fees.
Jacobs said he had never asked Lehr for money.
Jacobs’s case received national attention because a Web site for his supplements store boasted that he had counseled several players on the Dallas Cowboys and the Atlanta Falcons.
The day after Jacobs was sentenced, officials from the N.F.L. approached him in an attempt to obtain whatever information he had about players’ use of banned substances.
Jacobs met with the officials May 15, but he refused to answer questions about players because his lawyer was not present.
LINK
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/sp...ll&oref=slogin
Steroids Dealer Provides the N.F.L. With Evidence
Steroids Dealer Provides the N.F.L. With Evidence
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