Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, Green Bay Packers linebackers Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews and former Packers defensive linemen Mike Neal will be suspended if they don’t talk to the NFL by August 25, the league said.
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The NFL sent a letter Monday to the NFL Players Association detailing a plan to suspend them if they don’t speak with the league by August 25. The other three players are Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers and unsigned free-agent linebacker Mike Neal. After the interview, Commissioner Roger Goodell will make the determination on if and when each suspension should be lifted.
Matthews and Peppers are among the players who were implicated in an Al Jazeera America documentary for using performance-enhancing drugs.
Birch, in his letter, said the league has made “at least seven attempts” to arrange the interviews. Goodell wants the NFL Players Association to bend to his every whim. On each occasion, the NFLPA has communicated the players’ refusal to participate. When asked why not get the interview over with, Harrison was blunt in his response.
Harrison is a fourteen year veteran for the Steelers and remains one of its on-field leaders while Matthews and Peppers are crucial in the Packers defensive system.
It’s why the NFL Players Association, which serves the greater good of all players, has balked at cooperating. The report was based largely on the testimony of Charles Sly, who worked at anti-aging clinic in Indianapolis but has since recanted his story.
Looks to me no more that National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell has made a decision to flex his authority muscle yet again considering that although he ultimately won his ridiculous case against Tom Brady that drug on for two years he was completely emasculated in the public in the process.
It wasn’t a coincidence the NFLPA put out a terse statement after the league declared Peyton Manning, now retired and no longer a union member, had fully co-operated by providing access interviews and records and wouldn’t be disciplined, saying it knows he “would never do anything to hurt or undermine active players in support of those rights”.
Thompson said there are no contingency plans in place should there be suspensions, but did add, “You’d rather have those players than not”.
“If it is the case [that Goodell has too much power], we have nobody to blame but ourselves because we had the opportunity in the CBA to make some legitimate changes to that”, Rodgers said.
“Somebody could come out and say ‘James Harrison is a pedophile, ‘” he said.
The stance of the players has been steadfast in this case, refusing to be interviewed without being presented with what they’ve called credible evidence. “It’s a little more complicated than you might want it to be”.
“I have no idea”, he said of what else he would add.
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NFLPA assistant executive director of external affairs George Atallah told ESPN this summer that the players need more evidence from the league before addressing the reports further.
