In his weekly segment on the CBS pregame show, former Redskins and Texans G.M. Charley Casserly buried the lede, in a big way.
At the tail end of an update regarding the issue of HGH testing, Casserly dropped a bombshell. If the NFLPA forces Congress to conduct hearings aimed at forcing HGH testing, Congress will subpoena not only NFLPA leadership but also players, who’ll be grilled under oath on whether they are using HGH -- and whether they know anyone who is.
Casserly says that the first guy who’ll be invited to the proceedings is Bills linebacker Shawne Merriman.
It would be a baseball-style fiasco that could embarrass players and the league, and that could get some guys prosecuted for perjury, if they don’t tell the truth.
It’s a brilliant move by Congress. With a perception that the NFLPA is dragging its feet in order to force testing -- and thus to obtain cover for the decision to agree to it in the CBA -- NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith now must ponder a potentially more harmful outcome to his chances of being re-elected in March 2012. If Smith strings this out to the point that it forces the players to be publicly interrogated, and possibly humiliated, he could be back practicing law at Patton Boggs by the time the next season kicks off.