Chicago Bears pass rusher Montez Sweat took ownership Tuesday of the situation that led to his two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing substance policy.
Sweat said he unintentionally took a banned substance, and noted it was “devastating” to be away from the team and do damage to his reputation. While declining to go into detail about what he took, the 30-year-old called it “accidental” but noted that he, not his nutritional staff, was responsible for the mistake.
“It’s definitely something I’ve got to live with for my career,” Sweat said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “I never want to cheat the game, and I would never do it intentionally, but … I’m moving forward.”
Sweat said it was “tough” to face coach Ben Johnson after learning of his suspension.
“Nobody wants to go look someone in the eye after you’ve done something detrimental like that to the team,” Sweat said, “but those are things you have to do to move forward.”