NFL Bans Stanley Wilson for Substance Abuse

Stanley Wilson, the Cincinnati Bengal running back suspended for drug use on the eve of the Super Bowl, was permanently banned from the National Football League Monday for his continuing substance-abuse problem.

The action amounts to a lifetime ban for Wilson, 27, who had also missed the 1985 and 1987 seasons because of drug problems and is currently being treated at a Phoenix clinic.

However, league spokesman Joe Browne said it is possible he could apply for reinstatement if he presents evidence of his rehabilitation.

“In view of Wilson’s history, this permanent ban can’t come as a surprise to him,” Browne said.

Under the NFL’s drug policy, a player who fails a drug test once is not suspended but can be tested regularly for cause. If he fails again, he is suspended for 30 days; a third failure means a permanent ban with the option to reapply for reinstatement after a year.

Browne would not say, however, if Wilson’s suspension resulted from the drug policy or from conditions given him in April, 1988, when he was reinstated after agreeing to what the league called “certain conditions.”

Wilson began last season as Cincinnati’s starting fullback but injured a knee and lost the job to rookie Ickey Woods.