Five-time Pro Bowler and former wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins has brought up one of the most frustrating chapters of his NFL career, landing a sharp accusation on former Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim.

“I got set up when I played for his team and lost 13 million,” Hopkins commented on an Instagram post. “Skeme Slime [Steve Slime] was my GM, contaminated d— test, go figure how that happened.”

The NFL suspended Hopkins without pay for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy for the first six games of the 2022 season. The league did not accuse Keim or the Cardinals of involvement in the test, and there is no public evidence that Hopkins was intentionally set up.

Hopkins had already disputed the circumstances surrounding the failed test at the time. After initially saying he was shocked by the result, he later explained that the substance involved was Ostarine and said only a trace amount had been detected.

“We’re still doing some research right now,” DeAndre Hopkins said in June 2022. “Hopefully, before the season starts, maybe we can get the games down a little bit. But no, it wasn’t on me. I’m a natural. I’m pretty much a naturopathic kind of person, man. And what it was, it was called Ostarine, and there was 0.1% of it found in my system. If you know what that is, it’s contamination, not something directly taken.”

The $13 million figure is Hopkins’ own stated loss, not a number the NFL independently established when it announced the suspension.

Separately, the NFL Players Association said in July 2022 that an NFL Network report had inaccurately suggested Hopkins’ suspension involved a diuretic or masking agent, or an attempt to alter a sample.

“Hopkins never tested positive for any diuretic or masking agent, and there was absolutely no evidence of any attempt to substitute, dilute or adulterate any specimen or any attempt to manipulate a test,” the NFLPA said at the time.

The NFL Network subsequently corrected its report, saying language describing circumstances that could result in an eight-game ban had been mistakenly applied to Hopkins’ six-game suspension. The correction did not overturn Hopkins’ six-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy.

On the other hand, his 2020 extension with the Cardinals included $42.75 million in guaranteed money. His scheduled 2022 salary was $13.9 million before the contract was reworked.

In March 2020, the Arizona Cardinals acquired wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round pick from the Houston Texans. Arizona sent running back David Johnson, its 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick to Houston in the deal. Steve Keim, then the Cardinals’ general manager, completed the trade, which was finalized after Hopkins and Johnson passed their physicals.

Keim was the Cardinals’ general manager throughout Hopkins’ three seasons in Arizona from 2020 through 2022. Keim had been the team’s general manager since 2013 and first joined the Cardinals organization as a scout in 1999.

He began an indefinite health-related leave of absence in December 2022, with his duties handled on an interim basis by Quentin Harris and Adrian Wilson. On Jan. 9, 2023, the Cardinals announced that Keim had decided to step away from his position to focus on his health; team owner Michael Bidwill said Keim had offered his resignation the previous week.

Hopkins signed with the Tennessee Titans in 2023 when they traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs in October 2024 for a conditional 2025 fifth-round draft pick that could become a fourth-rounder. Hopkins then agreed to a one-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens in March 2025.

None of that erases what Hopkins actually did on the field while he was there. His first season with the Cardinals in 2020 was genuinely special. 115 catches, 1,407 yards, six touchdowns. Despite being held back by a suspension, Hopkins still managed 64 receptions, 717 yards, and 3 touchdowns across 9 games.

With his statement mentioning Steve Keim brings a whole new layer to this debate. For now, neither the NFL nor the former GM has opened up about it. Only time will tell what the conclusion of this conversation will bring.