With members of Congress wanting public hearings on the inability of the NFL and NFLPA to finalize their agreement to conduct HGH testing and with the NFLPA welcoming hearings on the issue, there has been speculation in league circles that NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith hopes to delay testing until after the completion of the 2011 season, given that his contract is up for renewal in March 2012.
Perhaps bolstering the speculation is chatter from within the NFLPA, which has made its way to PFT via a source with knowledge of such chatter, that the union’s current plan is to resist HGH testing until Congress forces the issue. That way, Smith can tell the players that he didn’t actually agree to HGH testing, but that he was given no choice by the minions of the federal government.
Either way, Smith will have to do some tap dancing in Hawaii (or wherever the NFLPA meetings will be conducted next year) when faced with the reality that, if the NFLPA hadn’t agreed to submit to HGH testing as part of the new labor deal, Congress wouldn’t be trying to force the two sides to proceed with it.