Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell claimed last month that he never missed a drug test. He reportedly missed more than one.
Ian Rapoport reported on NFL Network that Bell missed “several” drug tests.
Bell was already in the NFL’s substance-abuse program and was suspended for the first two games of last season in connection with a 2014 arrest for marijuana possession and DUI. Players who have never violated the policy are generally only tested for drugs of abuse once a year, but players who are already in the policy, like Bell, are subject to many tests.
Bell is appealing the suspension, but realistically, it’s hard to see why he would win an appeal: The NFL’s drug-testing policy makes clear that players are required to make themselves available to drug testing, and a player who misses several tests has clearly violated the policy. Missing one test could be a miscommunication. Missing several tests is a lot harder to explain away.