In the middle of what could only have been considered an epic career turnaround, New York Giants safety Will Hill learned Monday that he has been suspended four games by the NFL for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

Hill released an official statement immediately following the NFL’s announcement explaining that the suspension is for using Adderall, a drug used for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that was prescribed to him by a doctor before he was picked up by New York as an undrafted free agent this summer.

“I received a doctor’s prescription for Adderall prior to signing with the Giants. Shortly after signing with the team, I was in a meeting with [director of player development] Charles Way, who reviewed the list of the league’s banned substances. I knew at that point that this may be an issue. I was tested and the results came back that Adderall was in my system. I appealed but lost the appeal. I accept full responsibility for this situation, and it won’t happen again. The Giants have given me a great opportunity when nobody else would, and I don’t take that for granted. I feel badly this has happened. I will work hard and stay in great shape these next four weeks so I can come back and contribute to this team after my suspension.”

Hill was undrafted after leaving the Florida Gators as a junior in 2011 due to a combination of immaturity and his use of illegal drugs, namely marijuana. He went a long way to fixing that negative reputation over the last year and was signed by the Giants after wowing the team with his character off the field and ability on the field.

Ironically enough, Hill’s suspension comes on the same day that fellow former Florida defensive back Joe Haden, now a member of the Cleveland Browns, completed his four-game suspension for using the same substance.

Haden was found with Adderall in his system during a preseason test but unlike Hill never had a prescription for the drug. He allegedly used it as an upper during an offseason vacation in Las Vegas, NV.

“I would like to apologize to my fans, Haden Nation, the Cleveland Browns organization, front office, all the coaches. I hurt a lot of people. I hurt myself for sure. But I hurt a lot of people with the decision I made, and I just want everybody to know that I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart,” he said Monday, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “There’s no script. Nobody told me what to say. I just feel that and I want everybody to know that it was a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes, but my mistake happened to hurt a lot more people than I thought.”

Haden and Hill join New England Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes as three former Gators that have received NFL suspensions over the last three years for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substance. Spikes was suspended for the final four games of his rookie season in 2010 after testing positive for an ingredient that was contained in his ADHD medication.

Hill will be eligible to return to New York’s active roster on Nov. 5.

Tags: Brandon Spikes, Cleveland Browns, Joe Haden, New England Patriots, New York Giants, NFL, Will Hill

The 2012 NFL regular season began four weeks ago with 32 former Florida Gators football players spread over 23 teams.

A total of 20 players participated in week four action, many of whom had an impact on their respective team’s performance.

For the third-straight year, OGGOA has checked and re-checked the box scores to bring you a summary of what all of these Gators accomplished during the fourth week of the 2012 regular season.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
S MAJOR WRIGHT, Chicago Bears: Five tackles (three solo), two interceptions, two pass defenses

WR PERCY HARVIN, Minnesota Vikings Three receptions for 22 yards (targets: 6, long: 17); three carries for 12 yards (long: 14); kick return for 105 yards, touchdown

LB BRANDON SPIKES, New England Patriots: Seven tackles [team-high] (three solo), pass defense, two forced fumbles^ (Video 1 | Video 2)

Check out how the rest of the Florida Gators in the NFL played this week…
Continue Reading » Former Florida Gators in the NFL: Week 4 (2012)

Tags: Ahmad Black, Andre Caldwell, Brandon Siler, Brandon Spikes, Carlos Dunlap, Chas Henry, Cooper Carlisle, Cornelius Ingram, Deonte Thompson, Janoris Jenkins, Jeremy Mincey, Jermaine Cunningham, Louis Murphy, Major Wright, Maurice Hurt, Mike Peterson, Mike Pouncey, NFL, Percy Harvin, Ray McDonald, Reggie Nelson, Tim Tebow, Will Hill

The 2012 NFL regular season began three weeks ago with 32 former Florida Gators football players spread over 23 teams.

A total of 25 players participated in week three action, many of whom had an impact on their respective team’s performance.

For the third-straight year, OGGOA has checked and re-checked the box scores to bring you a summary of what all of these Gators accomplished during the third week of the 2012 regular season.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
S MAJOR WRIGHT, Chicago Bears: Two solo tackles, interception (45-yard touchdown return), pass defense

DE CARLOS DUNLAP, Cincinnati Bengals: Three tackles (two solo, one for loss), sack, three QB hits, forced fumble and fumble recovery (Video)

Check out how the rest of the Florida Gators in the NFL played this week…
Continue Reading » Former Florida Gators in the NFL: Week 3 (2012)

Tags: Ahmad Black, Andre Caldwell, Brandon Siler, Brandon Spikes, Carlos Dunlap, Chas Henry, Chris Rainey, Cooper Carlisle, Deonte Thompson, Janoris Jenkins, Jeremy Mincey, Jermaine Cunningham, Louis Murphy, Major Wright, Marcus Gilbert, Maurice Hurt, Maurkice Pouncey, Max Starks, Mike Peterson, Mike Pouncey, Percy Harvin, Ray McDonald, Reggie Nelson, Tim Tebow, Will Hill

The 2012 NFL regular season began on Wednesday with 32 former Florida Gators football players spread over 23 teams.

A total of 24 players participated in week two action, many of whom had an impact on their respective team’s performance.

For the third-straight year, OGGOA has checked and re-checked the box scores to bring you a summary of what all of these Gators accomplished during the second week of the 2012 regular season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
WR PERCY HARVIN, Minnesota Vikings 12 receptions [career-high] for 104 yards (targets: 13, long: 20) [team-highs]; two carries for 13 yards (long: 20); two kick returns for 78 yards (long: 50)

Check out how the rest of the Florida Gators in the NFL played this week…
Continue Reading » Former Florida Gators in the NFL: Week 2 (2012)

Tags: Aaron Hernandez, Ahmad Black, Brandon Siler, Brandon Spikes, Chas Henry, Chris Rainey, Cooper Carlisle, Deonte Thompson, Janoris Jenkins, Jeremy Mincey, Jermaine Cunningham, Louis Murphy, Major Wright, Marcus Gilbert, Maurice Hurt, Maurkice Pouncey, Max Starks, Mike Peterson, Mike Pouncey, NFL, Percy Harvin, Ray McDonald, Reggie Nelson, Tim Tebow, Will Hill

The 2012 NFL regular season began on Wednesday with 32 former Florida Gators football players spread over 23 teams.

A total of 26 players participated in week one action, many of whom had an impact on their respective team’s performance.

For the third-straight year, OGGOA has checked and re-checked the box scores to bring you a summary of what all of these Gators accomplished during the first week of the 2012 regular season.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
SS AHMAD BLACK, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Interception (no return), pass defense

Black caught his first career interception on Sunday and was obviously enthralled with the ball afterward. Image credit: SB Nation

TE AARON HERNANDEZ, New England Patriots: Six receptions [team-high] for 59 yards (targets: 7, long: 23), touchdown; carry for five yards

Check out how the rest of the Florida Gators in the NFL played this week…
Continue Reading » Former Florida Gators in the NFL: Week 1 (2012)

Tags: Aaron Hernandez, Ahmad Black, Brandon Siler, Brandon Spikes, Chas Henry, Chris Rainey, Cooper Carlisle, David Nelson, Deonte Thompson, Janoris Jenkins, Jeremy Mincey, Jermaine Cunningham, Joe Haden, Louis Murphy, Major Wright, Marcus Gilbert, Maurice Hurt, Maurkice Pouncey, Max Starks, Mike Peterson, Mike Pouncey, NFL, Percy Harvin, Ray McDonald, Reggie Nelson, Tim Tebow, Will Hill

1 » With the Florida Gators’ game against the Texas A&M Aggies under 48 hours away, now is as good of a time as ever to check on ESPN College GameDay’s promotional video for the contest set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

2 » Cleveland Browns president Mike Holmgren announced on Tuesday that cornerback Joe Haden has indeed been suspended by the NFL for failing the league’s banned substance policy (testing positive for Adderall); however, he is set to play in the team’s season opener on Sunday and every game from that point forward until his already-filed appeal is ruled on by the league. Haden’s suspension, should it be enacted after the NFL reviews his appeal, will be for four games. He would at that time become the second former Gators player in the last three years to receive a suspension for violating that policy as New England Patriots linebacker Brandon Spikes missed the last four games of his rookie season in 2010 after testing positive for an ingredient that was contained in his ADHD medication.

Click to expand and read two more BITS in this post.

Tags: baseball, Brandon Spikes, Brittany Schutte, Cheyenne Coyle, Cleveland Browns, Draft, Joe Haden, Kasey Fagan, Los Angeles Dodgers, Michelle Moultrie, MLB, NCAA, NCAA Tournament, New England Patriots, NFL, Sami Fagan, softball, Steven Rodriguez, Texas A&M Aggies, Tim Walton

With the 2012 NFL regular season just a few weeks away, a number of former Florida Gators football players participated in preseason action, many of whom had an impact on their team’s performance. OGGOA has checked and re-checked the box scores to bring you a summary of what these Gators accomplished during the third week of 2012 preseason action.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Not awarded for preseason games.

Check out how the Gators in the NFL played…after the break!
Continue Reading » Florida Gators in the NFL: Preseason Week 3

Tags: Aaron Hernandez, Ahmad Black, Andre Caldwell, Brandon Hicks, Brandon Siler, Brandon Spikes, Chris Rainey, Cooper Carlisle, Cornelius Ingram, David Nelson, Deonte Thompson, Gerard Warren, Jabar Gaffney, Janoris Jenkins, Jaye Howard, Jeff Demps, Jeremy Mincey, Jermaine Cunningham, Joe Haden, Louis Murphy, Major Wright, Marcus Gilbert, Marcus Thomas, Maurice Hurt, Maurkice Pouncey, Max Starks, Mike Peterson, Mike Pouncey, NFL, Percy Harvin, Phil Trautwein, Ray McDonald, Reggie Nelson, Rex Grossman, Tim Tebow, Will Hill, William Green

1 » New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, whose team now has six former Florida Gators on its roster after signing running back Jeff Demps last week, explained Thursday why he has picked up so many players from the team over the years.

Via the Boston Herald.

“First of all, obviously, Florida has a lot of good football players. It’s a great football state. The University of Florida has great athletes and great players at their school, as do a lot of the other Florida schools. I had a good relationship with Coach [Urban] Meyer, as I do with Coach [Will] Muschamp, so maybe we had a little more insight or opportunity to evaluate or whatever. And we felt like those particular players that we drafted there fit our system and what we were doing. Now, not everybody worked out. Some worked out better than others. But that particular class — the [Jermaine] Cunningham, [Brandon] Spikes, [Tim] Tebow, [Aaron] Hernandez, [Percy] Harvin the year before that, [David] Nelson, the receiver [Riley] Cooper — those guys in those couple years there. For whatever reason, [Meyer] asked me to speak at a clinic. Charlie [Weis] was there last year.

“So I just had a little more opportunity to interact with those players in that school, and they were available at the particular times that we were drafting and so forth. Some of it was coincidence. Some of it was maybe a little more homework in a player like Aaron Hernandez, that talent-wise obviously should have been drafted a little higher than what he was, but we were comfortable with Aaron and taking him the time we did. That’s worked out pretty well for us, so sometimes that little bit extra getting to know the player, the person and so forth can come into play. You never know in the draft process. You just never know how it’s going to go.

“Certainly, coincidence is a part of it. Demps, we didn’t really — the guy was running track, so the way it turned out this year, a lot of that was coincidence. It wasn’t that big of a plan, but we’re happy we have the opportunity to work with Jeff and see how it goes.”

2 » On the latest edition of the WWE’s YouTube program Outside the Ring, former Florida defensive end Thaddeus Bullard (known by his wrestling name of Titus O’Neil, one half of The Prime Time Players) takes tag team partner Darren Young on a tour of UF. The duo check out some major sites on campus, visit the athletic facilities, meet with Muschamp and Billy Donovan and do some Gator Chomps along the way.

Click to expand and check out two more BITS in this post.

Tags: Aaron Hernandez, Bill Belichick, Billy Donovan, Brandon Spikes, Charlie Weis, David Nelson, Gator Chomp, Jeff Demps, Jermaine Cunningham, New England Patriots, NFL, Percy Harvin, Riley Cooper, Ryan Lochte, swimming, Thaddeus Bullard, Tim Tebow, Titus O'Neil, Urban Meyer, WWE