Even though several recent reports indicated that Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison wouldn’t interview with the league about an Al-Jazeera report claiming he bought and used performance-enhancing drugs until the 30th of August, it turns out that meeting will take place before the team plays their Friday night preseason game against the New Orleans Saints.
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Steelers linebacker James Harrison has been informed that his meeting with National Football League investigators is 11 a.m. Thursday at the Steelers practice facility, the Post Gazette has learned.
The NFL had set an August 25 deadline for four players, including free agent Mike Neal, to come forward for questioning or face possible suspension. An NFLPA attorney will be present at Harrison’s interview, as well as the others, to help limit the questions to the specifics of the Al-Jazeera report, a source told ESPN’s Dan Graziano. The main person making the allegations in the report, Charlie Sly, recanted everything he said and the NFLPA has been fighting vigorously for the National Football League to provide proof other than the faulty report. Steelers linebacker James Harrison will tell his side of the story on August 30.
All four players and retired quarterback Peyton Manning were named in an Al Jazeera America documentary accusing them of using performance-enhancing drugs.
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The NFL has since cleared Manning of wrongdoing, and the pharmacist later recanted his statement but the league is investigating the report and said that multiple attempts had been made to set up interviews with the accused players. That way, I’ve been prosecuted and persecuted, publicly in the media by them for something that I didn’t do, so I don’t see why we can’t have the media there and do a live interview and ask their questions and I can answer them and y’all can see whatever evidence it is they say they’ve got. “That’s just the collective bargaining agreement that the players signed [in 2011]”.
