Thomas Davis is a class act. He is one of the NFL's good guys. Just ask anyone in the league who knows him. So when the news broke recently that the Carolina Panthers linebacker and 2014 Walter Payton Man of the Year winner had been suspended, for the first four games of the 2018 season, for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy, most NFL people in the know couldn’t believe it.

Davis a cheater? Hard to believe!

Just because someone is a great guy doesn't mean he is perfect. However, the ripple effect going through the NFLPA is growing due to the fact that this accusation is a hard one to comprehend.

If you watched Davis’ Walter Payton Award acceptance speech back in 2014, you wouldn’t believe that he is being suspended for something that seemingly goes against everything he stands for. He doesn't just play the game, he loves the game.

Failed drug reading possible?

When the news came out that the Carolina Panthers star linebacker would miss the first-quarter of the 2018 season, Davis did what most sports stars do nowadays, he took his case to social media. Davis took to Twitter to tell fans that he is not a cheater and will be ready to return better than ever after his suspension is over.

"I was completely caught off-guard by this.

I've never in any way done anything to try to intentionally cheat the game. I've taken the same supplements for the last seven or eight years and never had any issues.”

So did Davis try to pull the wool over everyone's eyes or did the drug test and the NFL fail him?

According to a SI.com report, the test could have made a mistake, or read a false positive.

After all, it isn't a completely perfect science. There is always a margin for error. Interestingly enough, SI indicates how a simple Google search shows that “estrogen blockers are commonly linked to athletes who finish a steroid cycle, but that’s not always the case.”

Now while it does seem unlikely that the laboratory could have mishandled both Davis’ A and B specimens, Davis is not the first to say he was innocent.

The intriguing thing about his particular case is his past shows him to be more than a credible person, and his reaction to the news of the suspension is more than believable. He genuinely seems shocked, crushed and even broken by this allegation and suspension.

Either way, the suspension has been set and Davis seems to be coming to terms with it. Now that Carolina will be without a key part of their defense for the first four games of the upcoming season, will this impact the Panthers? Sure it will, but it may also inspire them and lead to a magical season. Stranger things have happened.

Do you think Davis is telling the truth or did he get caught doing something he shouldn't have?
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