Harrison ends the affidavit by stating: “I have never ingested the substance or product called “Delta-2” and “I have never violated the NFL Policy Performance Enhancing Substances”.
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With the NFL and NFL Players Association still at impasse regarding the ability (or lack thereof) of the NFL to compel players to submit to interviews regarding alleged PED use, Steelers linebacker James Harrison has decided to make his overall position as to the allegations against him clear.
“I have met thousands of people during my career, but to the best of my knowledge and recollection, I have never met the individual who is apparently named Charles Sly”, Harrison said in the affidavit.
Harrison goes on to state he doesn’t know Sly and that he has had no form of communication with him.
Harrison claimed he never met Charles Sly, the man whose remarks alleging his use of PEDs appeared in an Al Jazeera America documentary called “The Dark Side”. The league is also still looking at Peyton Manning even though the star quarterback has retired and is no longer a member of the players union. Mike Neal, a former Packers linebacker who’s now a free agent, will be interviewed on or before July 22. Neal’s interview was scheduled to take place on or before July 22.
In addition, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in June the NFL is planning to interview Manning.
The union included the affidavit, along with a transcript of the only references to Harrison in the Al-Jazeera report, to support its position that there is no need for Harrison to agree to an in-person interview with the NFL as the league lacks evidence to support such an interview. The NFLPA has argued that because of that, the players should not have to discuss the matter with the NFL. “We have been obtaining and reviewing numerous records, conducting multiple interviews and working with other entities”.
The Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker has sent the league a sworn affidavit via the NFLPA in response to the league’s interview request regarding a performance-enhancing drug investigation.
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Manning has vehemently denied accusations he used human-growth hormone or PEDs during his recovery from neck surgery in 2011.
