If the suspension goes through, Packers will suffer the most as Matthew and Peppers are both playing for Green Bay.
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Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison says he had to take a random drug test for performance enhancing drugs on Tuesday.
So far, Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and defensive end Julius Peppers, Steelers linebacker James Harrison and free agent linebacker Mike Neal, who used to play for the Packers, have refused to grant National Football League investigators an audience to discuss their names coming up in the Al-Jazeera America documentary last December.
The league’s latest message to Pittsburgh’s James Harrison, Green Bay’s Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers as well as free-agent Mike Neal came with a threat: Answer our questions in the next 10 days, or start your suspension.
The players have until August 25 to do an interview with the league, and if that doesn’t happen, they’ll be suspended indefinitely, according to the letter.
By allowing its players to interview, the union feels it would be setting a precedent that commissioner Roger Goodell could compel any player to speak to investigators even if he has not violated the performance-enhancing drug policy.
The NFLPA and the involved players are upset because soon after the release of the report, which also named former Denver quarterback Peyton Manning, the person who made the claims said he lied about their involvement. The lead source for that report later recanted his claims.
Harrison said he doesn’t want to be suspended, but he is prepared to take the situation as far as New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady, who fought his four-game “Deflategate” suspension for 18 months – almost to the U.S. Supreme Court – before deciding to no longer proceed with the legal process. Harrison, Matthews, Neal and Peppers be given until Thursday, August 25 to provide interviews. “They’re going to suspend me and put me under investigation just because somebody said it?”
Given all of this, Harrison and the players have to fight this issue, and if they actual get suspended, the NFLPA will have to take the league to court to fight it – or else simply disband as a useless entity. Harrison, Matthews, Neal and Peppers.
If the Steelers – the only team to vote against the expansion of the NFL’s disciplinary power in the last collective bargaining agreement – were to urge him to cooperate with the league’s investigation he said it might encourage him to do so, but that he doesn’t know if he would.
“I won’t advise James of anything”, said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. It’s the same report that named Peyton Manning, who was on a Super Bowl victor and then retired to life of repose and selling us things in a series of short satirical films about capitalism, i.e., commercials. It’s the right thing to do … The league has tried to interview the players since the beginning of training, but the NFLPA has advised the players to not participate.
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“I’m sure there’s a lot of people that don’t understand what’s going on, that would include probably most of the people in this room, including me”, Thompson said.
