Sapp Tests Positive For Marijuana

University of Miami defensive lineman Warren Sapp, one of the top two NFL prospects, tested positive for marijuana at the league scouting combine last month, two NFL team sources confirmed Monday.

Sapp heads a list of seven prospects who tested positive for drugs, including one who tested positive for cocaine. At least three players on the list are considered first-round candidates.

“This is the worst it’s been in years,” said one scouting director.

The revelation about Sapp may be the final factor in convincing the Carolina Panthers, who own the top pick in the April draft, to use it on Penn State running back Ki-Jana Carter.

Sapp probably still will be selected among the top five. But the failed test will cost him millions of dollars and serious damage to his reputation.

Charlie Garner, a top running back prospect from Tennessee, failed a similar test last year.

He dropped from the first round to midway through the second round, where the Philadelphia Eagles were considered bold for drafting him. He was under scrutiny throughout an injury-plagued rookie year.

“The issue is not marijuana,” said one official. “The issue is bad judgment. The issue is stupidity. When you know for two months that you are going to be tested, how can anybody possibly test positive?”

Sapp, who won the Lombardi Award last year as the nation’s best defensive lineman, has enjoyed his final two-month advance warning for a drug test.

Under NFL policy, a player who tests positive for a banned substance is entered in the league’s drug program the moment he signs his contract.

This means he will be subject to random testing for possibly the remainder of his career. Such testing can occur as many as five times a week.

Quarterback Todd Marinovich, who was charged with cocaine possession before he was drafted in the first round by the Raiders in 1991, said that the constant testing drove him, “crazy.”