Pat and Kevin Williams, two Minnesota Vikings stars, have been cleared to play the entire NFL season by a Federal Appeals Court despite strong opposition from NFL. The NFL was seeking suspension for the two Vikings players after they were found guilty of violating the league’s anti-doping policy.

Kevin Williams remarked that both he and Pat were happy after the judgment.

From TimesUnion.com:

The fight isn’t over, but a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld earlier decisions from a federal district court — including one that says the remaining legal issues must be resolved in state court. The judge there has issued an injunction prohibiting the NFL from suspending the players, and he has said a state trial during the 2009 season was unlikely.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league is troubled by the ruling, which says federal law doesn’t pre-empt state law just because the parties are involved in a collective bargaining agreement.

“It is putting in jeopardy a drug program that has been put in front of the entire world as being one of the highest standards in all of sports,” Goodell said in an interview on WFAN-AM in New York on Friday. “It puts in jeopardy that players in Minnesota in any sport – this could affect other sports – are subject to a different standard than in the other 49 states. You recognize that it is a fairness question for all the athletes.”

Goodell said the NFL was considering its next step, which could include an appeal, a trial in state court, or taking the issue to Congress.

A spokesman and an attorney with the NFL Players Association did not immediately return requests for comment.

The two Williams used StarCaps, over-the-counter weight loss supplement, which did not came with the label warning that it consisted of the diuretic bumetanide that is banned by the NFL since it can mask the presence of steroids.