The NFL and the NFLPA agreed last month that the new CBA will include HGH testing, on both a random and annual basis. The NFL wants to start the testing by Week One.
The only problem? With eight days until the start of the regular season, the two sides can’t agree on a testing procedure.
Complicating matters is the fact that the World Anti-Doping Agency has aligned with the NFL, attempting to publicly pressure the players to accept WADA’s proposed protocol. The group’s grand poobah, David Howman (pictured), recently said that scientists working for the NFLPA have accepted WADA’s test as valid.
“He should not be so arrogant and presumptuous to speak on our behalf or on the behalf of anybody from our team,” NFLPA spokesman George Atallah told Judy Battista of the New York Times.
The league says it’s not about WADA. “This is not WADA’s program,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Battista. “It is our program. We have always embraced the best available testing technology and been leaders in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs that distort the competition on the field and jeopardize the health and safety of athletes. We have the opportunity to do something meaningful not only for our players but for all athletes at all levels of play.”
And that leads to an obvious question. If the NFLPA has agreed to HGH testing but the NFLPA doesn’t accept WADA’s version of HGH testing, what does the NFLPA recommend as an alternative?
Unless and until the NFLPA articulates a viable alternative test, the union’s refusal to accept the WADA test could be nothing more than an effort to score concessions as to other aspects of the drug testing policies and procedures by once again advancing a hollow claim that more information is needed.
The NFLPA will be conducting a conference call Wednesday to discuss the issue, per the Associated Press. And it’s a thorny situation for the players. If there’s no HGH test they’ll accept, they never should have agreed to submit to HGH testing.