New York Giants wide receiver Golden Tate was recently suspended for the first four games of the 2019 NFL season for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy. While Tate has appealed the decision and is reportedly optimistic he can win, there’s “almost no way” Tate will be getting his suspension completely removed, according to Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.

Tate's best odds are possibly getting the suspension reduced from four games to two or three, but even that is a very low possibility:

“Everybody has an excuse and they all think it's good,” one source said. “But it never matters.”

Tate failed his drug test in April, and when news of the issue came to light, the receiver released a statement professing his innocence. According to Tate, the failure came from him being prescribed a drug by a fertility planning specialist, and something in the drug contained an item on the league’s banned substance list.

Tate maintains that once he found out the drug contained a banned substance, he reported it to the independent administrator of the NFL. Unfortunately for Tate, while he did seemingly take the right steps in discovering the issue and reporting, the NFL still might not care.

In the NFL’s drug policy, it states players are responsible for what they take, and even if Tate found out, he still took the prescribed drugs:

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“He may have done everything right after he took it, and it may have been an innocent mistake,” said one NFL agent. “No one will care. The drug policy is unforgiving.”

Tate will likely found out soon what will happen regarding his suspension, but this is another hit for a Giants team that has lost a handful of offensive weapons already. Hopefully for Tate, the league is able to come to some sort of agreement on the suspension.