Golden Tate suspended four games by NFL

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Giants wide receiver Golden Tate has had the appeal of his four-game suspension for a violation of the NFL’s policy on performance enhancers turned down.

The decision by an independent arbiter was announced Aug. 13 and means the 10-year-veteran will miss the first four games of the regular season, starting with Dallas on Sept. 8.

Tate, who signed a $37.5 million contract as a free agent with the Giants in March, announced the suspension in a Twitter post July 27. He said he intended to appeal it and felt his case had merit because he was using a fertility drug prescribed by a doctor.

The appeal was heard by a member of an independent appeals panel in New York last week.

The NFL allows players to use fertility drugs but they must obtain a therapeutic use exemption prior to using them. The league has insisted players are responsible for the drugs and supplements they take and advises them to talk to team trainers and medical personnel before using them.

NFL

JETS ADD COOPER>> The Jets have signed veteran cornerback Marcus Cooper for depth in their depleted secondary. The team also announced Aug. 13 it waived tight end Nick Truesdell to make room on the roster. Cooper has played in 74 games, including 28 starts, in stints with San Francisco, Kansas City, Arizona, Chicago and Detroit in six NFL seasons. He was released by the Lions on Aug. 12. The 2013 seventhround draft pick out of Rutgers has seven career interceptions with 36 passes defensed and 154 tackles. The Jets need experience and depth at the position after losing No. 1 cornerback Trumaine Johnson to a hamstring injury that could sideline him the rest of the preseason.

MLB

MANUEL BACK WITH PHILLIES >> Charlie Manuel is a Philadelphia baseball icon now, and all it took was one World Series title and almost another. Before he came in and helped turn the franchise around as a motivator of players, done via a curious country twang obscuring a sharp baseball mind, Manuel was an innovator. A player whose swing became a cultural art form in Japan, though less successful in a couple of major league cities in the states, he became a hitting coach who approached his craft as a science, and was gifted at revealing its secrets to others. So successful was Charlie Manuel at teaching that old swing thing over much of the past 30 years, as a hitting coach and manager in Cleveland, then as a manager and latter day guru for the Phillies, they thought it a good idea to return him to his roots in the latter days of a season gone wrong.