Goodell Wins This Round: Players Accused Of PED Use Will Meet With NFL
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The standoff between the NFL and the players accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs is over.
The players blinked.
Roger Goodell won. Again.
According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen and SI's Albert Breer, the three players currently on NFL rosters who were named in December's Al Jazeera America report will indeed submit to interviews with NFL investigators.
Those three players are Pittsburgh's James Harrison and Green Bay's Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers.
Mike Neal, currently a free agent, has not yet decided, according to Mortensen.
Previously, the NFL threatened to suspend the players on Aug. 26 if they did not submit to interviews. The players, via the union, fought the league's request, citing a lack of evidence. Yet the NFL persisted and, ultimately, won this standoff.
The NFL already cleared Peyton Manning of any and all wrongdoing, after Manning was named in the same Al Jazeera report.
Harrison had been the most vocal opponent of the NFL investigation, at one point saying he'd only agree to an interview at his own home with Goodell. The league opted to not respond to that request.
Breer posted on Twitter a letter from Heather McPhee of the NFLPA to the NFL. It was not a cordial letter.
"Your most recent letter, distributed to the media before providing it to Mr. Harrison and the NFLPA, confirmed our understanding that, rather than act with the integrity, respect, and thoughtful dilligence that an employer such as the NFL should, the League has instead decieded to ignore its collectively-bargained agreements and try to bully and publicly 'shame' a veteran player-employee who has repeatedly asked a simple, eminently reasonable question about his employer's investigation," McPhee wrote, before pasting that question in bold letters. "Is the NFL of any credible evidence -- other than the recanted marks by one individual shown by Al-Jazeera -- that indicates there is any validity to the remarks about Mr. Harrison?"
The letter noted that Goodell was circumventing the carefully negotiated PED policy, through which Goodell cannot arbitrarily assign discipline. Instead, Goodell threatened suspensions under the broad powers of Article 46 -- powers which were confirmed and, as a result, enhanced by the decision in the Tom Brady case.
"We also disagree with your assertion that Article 46 has any application here -- the Policy has its own collectively bargained discipline and dispute resolution provisions," McPhee wrote.
McPhee delivered a rather blunt statement when getting to the most important part of the letter.
"Despite the NFL's attempt to assert authority for which it never bargained, and its embarrassing refusal to thoughtfully consider the fair question and viewpoint of a man who has performed his job in a public arena at the highest level for over fifteen years, Mr. Harrison has decided that he will try to end this witch hunt and distraction to his team; he will make himself available," the letter stated.
And, in a reporting quirk that will no doubt get noticed in New England, there was a discrepancy in Mortensen's initial report on Twitter.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
