For Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Kevin Williams, it's one thing to serve a two-game suspension for a violation of the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances but simply outrageous to be fined two additional game checks as added punishment.
"There isn't a job in America that you do the work for free," Williams told The Star Tribune on Saturday. "Who wants to work for free? It doesn't seem fair to me to take a game check and expect you to work for free. Has that even been done before?"
Actually it has and it even involved Vikings. The Star Tribune pointed to the 2006 case in which the NFL fined Bryant McKinnie and Fred Smoot one game check each without suspending them for their involvement in the "love boat" incident in 2005.
Williams also has issues with his fine being based on his current $6 million salary instead of the $1 million he was making in 2008 when he tested positive for the banned diuretic StarCaps, saying, "The penalty looks good on the outside because of the two games. But it's crap on the inside."
Williams fought the original four-game suspension through federal and state courts for three years before giving up this spring because his attorney said Williams was tired of the litigation.
He will be fined about $1.4 million. Had he accepted the 2008 punishment, it would have cost him about $235,000.
"It seems like there's nothing I can do about it," Williams told the newspaper. "But I got my agent (Tom Condon) looking into whether there's anything we can do about fining me based on this year's salary."
Williams even disagreed with the idea that the two weeks off will help his plantar fasciitis.
"I would have been out there," Williams said. "I was ready to play."
New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith and free-agent defensive lineman Charles Grant and Pat Williams reportedly received the same punishment in the StarCaps case.
