Report: Brandon Browner to sue NFL over drug policy suspension

Brandon Browner was indefinitely suspended for violating the NFL's drug policy. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

The agent for Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner said he will file a federal lawsuit against the NFL next week with the intention of having his client's drug policy suspension reversed before free agency begins, Tom Pelissero of USA Today reports.

Browner's agent, Peter Schaffer, told USA Today Wednesday he will file suit on behalf of Browner, whom the NFL suspended indefinitely in December after he tested positive for marijuana.

Schaffer questioned the NFL's substance abuse program and its testing process in Browner's suspension, claiming his client was moved from stage one to stage three for failing to cooperate with three tests. Schaffer claims Browner was never contacted by the program to schedule the tests and should not have been subjected to testing because he was out of the league at the time.

Schaffer said if Browner had not been improperly moved to stage three, he would have been out of the NFL's drug program in January 2013 and would not have been required to the additional testing that resulted in his failed test.

Schaffer told Pro Football Talk  in December that he and Browner would “sue the living daylights out of the league.”

In December, Browner accepted responsibility for his actions and apologized, while disagreeing with the circumstances of his suspension in a statement:

. . . Although I disagree with the circumstances surrounding my suspension, I accept responsibility for all of my actions and I apologize for any that causes any unflattering reflections of my family and the Seahawks. I believe in my innocence and will continue to fight with all legal resources available to me to. Go Hawks!!!”

BEDARD: NFL's top free agents No. 51-100

Schaffer claims his client would become a free agent upon reinstatement.