Posted by Mike Triplett, The Times-Picayune December 02, 2008 7:23PM

Saints tailback Deuce McAllister said he was obviously disappointed by the NFL’s decision to suspend him for the final four games of the regular season, but he said he had prepared himself for the worst.

McAllister, who was hosting his annual holiday shopping spree “DeuceGiving” for children in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday said, “This was the toughest thing, hearing the news today. But I wasn’t gonna put a damper on the event we had for these kids tonight. They had a blast, we were having fun. I had to keep my head up high for them.”

He said it’s still possible that his attorney David Cornwell will file for an injunction to halt the league’s suspensions, but both he and Cornwell said they have not yet decided if they will follow that course of action.

As for what this means for him in the long-term, McAllister isn’t ready to go down that road just yet.

“I don’t feel like I’m through playing. I don’t feel like I’ve played my last game in the Dome,” said McAllister, who turns 30 this month. “I mean, whatever happens happens, but there’s no reason to try and speculate at this point.”

McAllister has four years remaining on his contract, but his salary-cap figure for next year is $7.3 million, which would likely need to be significantly restructured to keep him in a Saints uniform.

“We all know something will occur. What will occur we don’t know,” said McAllister, who said it would be premature to start talking about changing his contract. “Right now I have a contract.”

McAllister and Saints defensive ends Charles Grant and Will Smith were all suspended for four games without pay on Tuesday for violating the league’s policy on steroids and related substances. They all tested positive for the banned diuretic, bumetanide, which they say came from an over-the-counter weight-loss product called StarCaps, which advertises itself as all natural and does not list any diuretics or other banned substances among its ingredients.

McAllister said he has been taking the product for four years, and that he had a team trainer inquire about the product through the league’s hotline before he started taking it. Although the league didn’t officially approve the product, McAllister said he was informed that there was nothing bad in the product.

“Probably the saddest part about it is that I went about it the right way,” McAllister said. “My only question now is, ‘What is a player supposed to do if it’s not calling the league hotline?’ Obviously that’s not working, because that’s what I did and that’s not working. Something needs to be revamped.

“Now we find out that the league doesn’t test it. They just read the label. I can read the label.”

The NFL reiterated its policy Tuesday, both through a lengthy statement and a conference call with the league’s Vice President of Law & Labor Policy, Adolpho Birch. Birch said the league does not test products for players or teams, but that the hotline is there for informational and educational purposes. The league has long advised players to avoid weight-loss supplements, because they are unregulated and often contain diuretics that are both prohibited by the league and harmful to the body.

McAllister said the StarCaps product has been used for years by several players around the league, including one unnamed player he described as a future Hall of Famer, and he said Grant estimated during the appeals process that at least 25 players on the Saints had used it at one point or another over the past seven years.

Saints guard Jamar Nesbit also was suspended this season under the same circumstances, but he elected to waive his right to appeal and served his suspension. He later filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of StarCaps.

Neither Smith nor Grant were reached for comment.

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