Dustin Johnson agreed to take a 6 month leave of absence from the PGA Tour for "personal challenges" last Thursday. Since everyone was suspicious about the news, my blog "Dustin Johnson Drug Rumors" from December of blew up to the tune of 7,000 pageviews. Then news broke in a rare, hard-hitting Golf.com article on Friday that DJ was suspended for 6 months after testing positive for cocaine. The article also states that he failed for marijuana in 2009, as well as cocaine in 2012 & 2014. It also says that his suspension in 2012 was never made public. Surprise surprise. I was right.
Debatably, the most fascinating part of the story is the PGA Tour's handling of the whole situation. Under the PGA Tour’s drug-testing policies, the Tour is not required to announce any disciplinary actions against players who test positive for recreational drugs. Golf.com put it very succinctly:
"After declining a Friday morning request to comment on the Johnson drug test results and his punishment, the PGA Tour released the following statement on Friday afternoon: “With regard to media reports that Dustin Johnson has been suspended by the PGA Tour, this is to clarify that Mr. Johnson has taken a voluntary leave of absence and is not under a suspension from the PGA Tour.”
The difference may be seen as semantic. Faced with a suspension for a failed drug test, a Tour player has the right, under published Tour guidelines, to appeal his penalty. The Tour was preparing for Johnson to lodge such an appeal. But Johnson waived that right and decided to take his self-described "leave of absence."
The Tour’s one-sentence statement did not address Johnson’s drug test results or say whether Johnson's 11-week absence in 2012 was also a "voluntary leave of absence." In that period, when Johnson said he was not playing Tour events (including the Masters) because of bad back, he was seen hitting balls regularly in South Florida, where he lives. The Tour's policy of releasing no information on failed drug tests or resulting penalties essentially allows a player and his advisors to characterize an absence as they wish."
Can you imagine if Roger Goodell, Bud Selig, Adam Silver, or Gary Bettman tried to handle suspensions even remotely like this? Roger Goodell is currently being lambasted by virtually everyone in the media because he wasn't harsh enough on first-time offender Ray Rice. Absolutely the ONLY reason for the outrage is because of the TMZ video. No video and it's a completely different story with the Ravens appealing the suspension. Goodell is probably being asked if all assault cases are now going to be the "harsh" penalty of a mandatory two game suspension. That's how powerful this video really is.
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