Attorney David Cornwell, ignoring comments from the NFL characterizing public comments regarding unresolved disciplinary appeals as “inappropriate,” continues to verbally blast Dr. John Lombardo, administrator of the league’s policy regarding anabolic steroids and related substances.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Cornwell claimed that Lombardo testified during the Tuesday hearing involving three Saints players that he knew StarCaps contained Bumetanide, but that he did not specifically warn NFL players about this product.  Cornwell explained in the statement that Lombardo opted not to disclose that StarCaps contained Bumetanide out of concerns that any players testing positive for Bumetanide would simply claim that they had been taking StarCaps.

Bumetanide is a prescription diuretic, and it masks the presence of compounds like steroids.

Cornwell has supplemented his prior comments, taking even more direct aim at the administrator of the steroids policy. 

“Dr. Lombardo put health and careers at risk to gain a tactical advantage in unfiled disciplinary appeals,” Cornwell said in a Thursday morning e-mail.  ”His job is to protect NFL players, not ‘get ‘em.’  If Dr. Lombardo had done his job as well as NFL players are required to do theirs, we would not have this controversy over StarCaps. 

“A double standard is ‘totally inappropriate.’  It is outrageous that Will [Smith], Deuce [McAllister], Charles [Grant], and other NFL players are confronting discipline when it is Dr. Lombardo who failed.”

Cornwell’s public comments regarding the supposedly confidential process are unprecedented.  Given, however, the fact that someone from the league or the NFLPA leaked to the media information regarding the pending suspensions at a time when the positive results should have been top-secret, it makes sense (in our view) for Cornwell to ensure that more of the story is publicly available.

That said, a cynical mind could suspect that Cornwell is grandstanding on this one in order to gain consideration for NFLPA Executive Director gig.  But even if he is, the fact that Cornwell is standing up and fighting the NFL at a time when no one else from the players’ perspective seems to be willing or able to do so should be enough to get players pondering his potential candidacy.  At a time when change is the new buzzword in America, Cornwell’s unconventional strategy for vindicating the interests of his clients could indeed strike a chord with the guys who’ll ultimately elect the next leader of the union.