St. Louis Rams linebacker David Vobora may be sitting idle with his fellow NFL players this summer, but he's resting easier than most. On Monday, Vobora was awarded $5.4 million as a result of a lawsuit he filed against Anti-Steroid Program LLC, also known as SWATS, which supplied him with a contaminated supplement. The award pays him for wages lost during his four-game suspension from the league in 2009 after he tested positive for a banned substance, plus $2 million for damages to his reputation.
U.S. District Court Judge Rodney Sippel of the Eastern District of Missouri ruled that the company's "negligence, breach of implied warranty, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, violation of strict products liability laws, and violation of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act" had damaged Vobora.
"Compensation was secondary," Vobora told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "The number one thing was to right the ship and restore my reputation." Just as well - the paper reports that the owner of SWATS (it stands for Sports with Alternatives to Steroids) managed to get himself dismissed from the case, and filed an affidavit that the company was being dissolved. SWATS was found in default of the lawsuit in April.
