The two Packers players implicated in the Al Jazeera report about performance-enhancing drugs didn’t say too much Tuesday as they reported to camp, beyond the fact they haven’t talked to the NFL and didn’t think much of the allegations, to begin with.
(Then again, the fact they talked at all probably qualifies Green Bay’s media relations staff for an award.)
But Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews were short on specifics of the investigation, saying they were trusting the guidance of the NFL Players Association at the moment, and not talking to the league.
“I’m letting the PA handle that,” Peppers said, via Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Probably will, but don’t really know the details of the process at this moment.”
Matthews was more expressive but followed the same path, saying he didn’t know what he could tell investigators beyond the fact the claims they were delivered banned substances from an anti-aging clinic weren’t true.
“I have no idea,” Matthews said when asked what information he could provide. “We asked the same questions [to them]. Maybe it’s to conduct a formal investigation. I don’t know.
“It’s annoying, there’s no doubt about that.”
The initial claims have been recanted by the guy who made them, and retired Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning has already been cleared by the league — though the NFLPA pointed out that as a former union member, Manning didn’t fall under their auspices and was free to proceed with the NFL as he wished.
“It sets a dangerous precedent, but at the same time, I get it, they have a job to do,” Matthews said of the league’s investigation. “But now I’m — and some of these other guys — are in kind of in a whirlwind of controversy. If it was up to me this thing would be behind us a long time ago.”
The league still wanted to interview current players as they came to training camp, but at a time when the NFL and NFLPA are agreeing at record pace, they don’t seem to have quite come to a compromise on this one.