Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, and free-agent linebacker Mike Neal will be suspended beginning August 26 if they haven’t cooperated, NFL senior vice president of labor policy and league affairs Adolpho Birch told the NFL Players Association in a letter Monday that was first obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
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If he and the other players involved in the investigation do not work with the NFL’s investigators, they will be suspended by the league indefinitely. The NFL says the player’s unions released statements after the league first asked to talk to Harrison, Matthews, Peppers and current free agent Mike Neal but that statement is not remotely acceptable.
Manning met with the NFL to discuss the report, and according to a statement from the NFL “cooperated fully” with the league in its efforts to investigate the claims.
Thompson went on to say that he would not have any further comment into the matter. Harrison, a 14-year veteran who has denied knowing Sly or using PEDs, made headlines in June when he said he would submit to an interview – if Goodell came to his house. “I’m not going to answer questions for every little thing some Tom, Dick and Harry comes up with”.
“I won’t advise James of anything”, said Tomlin.
“I’m sure it would lean me in that direction because I don’t want to let my teammates down”, Harrison said.
It was just Thompson stating at the start of his weekly news conference that he was standing behind his two players and would not be talking about the possible suspension they face until the issue was resolved. The NFL Players Association previously stated that affidavits submitted by the four players in July constituted reasonable cooperation, but the league maintained its position.
The claims originated from an undercover investigation aired in January by Al Jazeera America. If they don’t submit to interviews, they’ll be suspended indefinitely starting on August 26, the date of Green Bay’s preseason game at San Francisco. “But, the truth will come out and everything I said when the allegations came out I still stand by, so I just try to kind of put that in the rearview mirror and focus on the season”.
The four active players, with the full support of their union, have resisted the NFL’s attempts to interview them, however, on the grounds that the report was flimsy and the source of the accusations, Charles Sly, recanted everything he said in the film.
Matthews and Peppers did not talk with reporters on Tuesday.
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Retired quarterback Peyton Manning was also cited in Al-Jazeera’s doping report in December. “I think everybody’s going to have an opinion on things”. “You and I can disagree with everything he is doing, that’s how he is”. But if Matthews, Peppers and the Packers think the NFL is just bluffing, they might want to remember this is a league that doled out a four-game suspension to one of its all-time greats for allegedly deflating footballs. That’s due in part to the collective bargaining agreement, on which the players signed off before the 2011 season. Harrison said he’s “definitely” prepared to sit if it’s the right thing to do.
