Remember that HGH testing that was agreed to two years ago and was said to be close in recent weeks? Yeah, that was fun.
It seems the NFLPA and the NFL are still hung up on some basic issues, as union president Domonique Foxworth urged the league to move forward without commissioner Roger Goodell having jurisdiction over appeals that involve violations that don’t involve positive tests or violations of the law.
“If the NFL justifies keeping Roger’s power because of the CBA, then why did they agree to change it for every other part of the new policy?” Foxworth wrote in an email to Tom Pelissero of USA Today. “The fact is he wants a ‘carve out’ an exception to neutral arbitration. All of our players voted for fairness.”
There have been no formal meetings on the topic since the NFLPA agreed to an HGH population study, which leaves the league has three possible courses of action: Sign the letter authorizing the population study, giving in to the union’s demands that Goodell be hands-off, or continue to argue about this over process as they have for months.
The first isn’t viewed as likely, because the league doesn’t want to implement anything until a full agreement on the policy is reached. The second is unlikely, because Goodell and the owners don’t have a long track record of giving up any kind of authority.
Which leaves us with Door No. 3, which is more talking and less doing.
And that increases the likelihood that the much-talked-about testing program won’t happen before the start of the regular season, after all.