Texans linebacker Brian Cushing will play his first game of the 2010 season on Sunday against the Giants after serving a four-game suspension for violating the league's performance-enhancing substance policy.
One of the big questions facing Cushing is whether he can be the same player that he was in his defensive rookie of the year season in 2009. Cushing says he's using the suspension as motivation to be even better.
"That's what gets me through the fourth quarter," Cushing told the New York Daily News. "The suspension is going to motivate me until the day I die."
Cushing is sticking with his story that something called "Overtrained Athlete Syndrome" triggered his positive test, and he also seems to be motivated by the people who don't buy that story.