Last season, Brian Cushing was rewarded and honored as the Defensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL for the Houston Texans. He has now been put on a four game suspension due to violating an NFL policy regarding the use of performance-enhancing substances.

Although Cushing will be required to miss this season’s first four games, he will be allowed to partake in the preseason as well as training camp. Cushing is a valuable member to the team and the Coaches will admit this; however, they are preparing the team to make it without Cushing and to win the first four games of the season.

Initially, according to ESPN, Cushing had appealed the suspension decision but the appeal was not found in his favor. Earlier today, Cushing was informed of the league’s decision to reject his appeal. There had been suspicion before as to whether or not Cushing had used illegal steroids for the enhancement of his performance prior to being drafted in 2009 from USC by the Houston Texans. February of 2009, Cushing was able to successfully dismiss those rumors at a scouting combine and the Texans’ were unable to find any truth behind such allegations during their regular draft process.

The suspension will begin for Cushing on September 4, which is a Saturday, and he will be. The fourth game is on October 3 against the Oakland Raiders and Cushing will be entitled to return to the Houston Texans active playing roster the next day, October 4. During his suspension, he will go unpaid and he will miss the above-mentioned game against the Raiders as well as the Indianapolis Colts, Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys.

The Texans’ defense team will have to work hard in order to win without Cushing, one of their major defensive players.

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