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FOXBORO - Doobies in the pocket got Kevin Faulk an unpaid vacation to start the 2008 NFL regular season.

The league announced Saturday that the 10th-year running back out of LSU would have to sit out the opening game of the regular season (a week from today at Gillette Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs) because he had been detained at a concert in Louisiana with marijuana in his possession on Feb. 22.

According to a statement issued by the NFL, Faulk will also have to surrender an additional game check for having violated the terms of the league's substance abuse policy.

Faulk was about the enter the Cajundome in Lafayette, La., to attend a concert by rapper Lil Wayne, when he was brought into an administrative office

and searched by a uniformed Lafayette Parish sheriff's deputy. Faulk was found to have four hand-rolled marijuana cigars in the pocket of his jacket. He was issued a citation for misdemeanor possession and allowed to attend the concert. Police said Faulk was cooperative throughout.

The veteran running back, named a captain last season for the first time in his career, claimed afterward that the jacket he was wearing was borrowed from someone else, and that he had not checked the pockets to see what might be in them. He took a drug test the next day and the results showed no evidence of marijuana use.

According to a Patriots' spokesman, Faulk will be placed on the reserve-suspended list, and he will not count against the regular-season 53-man roster that was to have been finalized by 4 p.m. Saturday, as was the case last season when safety Rodney Harrison was suspended for the first four games for purchasing a banned performance-enhancing substance.

The Patriots will be allowed to keep an additional player on the roster while Faulk serves his suspension. Faulk will be eligible to return to the roster on Sept. 8, at which time a roster move will be required for the team to stay at the 53-man limit.

Faulk's suspension also raises the possibility that the league may consider sanctions against starting right tackle Nick Kaczur, who was arrested in upstate New York in April for illegal possession of 100 OxyContin tablets after a routine traffic stop. Kaczur later participated in a federal sting operation leading to the arrest of his alleged supplier, and he paid a $355 fine for a reduced charge of speeding after a court appearance in July.