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Colts' Arthur Jones suspended four games for PED use

Arthur Jones (AP)
Arthur Jones (AP)

Add Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle Arthur Jones to the long list of players who will miss games at the start of the coming season because of NFL suspension.

Jones will sit the first four games after violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs, as reported by the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson and others.

Signed by the Colts to a five-year, $33 million contract ($16 million guaranteed) in 2014, a deal that reunited him with his defensive coordinator in Baltimore, Chuck Pagano, and was meant to shore up the Colts’ bad run defense.

But more than two years in, the move has not worked out for Indianapolis.

Jones missed seven games of the 2014 season to an ankle injury, and then missed all of last season to another ankle injury, this time surgery to repair torn ligaments.

Earlier this year, Jones agreed to a pay cut that dropped his salary from $4.5 million to $2.5 million for this year, and he would be able to earn the $2 million back through roster bonuses and incentives. The suspension now makes it impossible he could earn the full difference back, and it’s possible the Colts could cut Jones; doing so would cost $3.3 million in dead money against the salary cap.

This has not been the best year for Jones and his two younger brothers, UFC fighter Jon Jones and Arizona Cardinals outside linebacker Chandler Jones. In January, Chandler, then with the New England Patriots, went to the police department in Foxboro, Mass. shirtless and disoriented and seeking help. The Boston Globe reported that Jones had used synthetic marijuana.

Earlier this month, Jon was pulled from his bout at UFC 200 after testing positive for PEDs, the latest in a string of problems for the man who was once considered MMA’s biggest star. Jones maintained his innocence in the most recent scandal, saying he did not knowingly take a banned substance.