Three NFL players have agreed to meet NFL investigators regarding performance-enhancing drug allegations stemming from a December report by Al Jazeera America. Matthews and Peppers are key cogs in Green Bay’s defense, and Neal is now a free agent who spent the past six seasons with the Packers. The four active players refused to meet with the league.
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James Harrison and the National Football League have agreed to an interview at the team facility, according to an ESPN report.
Harrison added that he made the decision on his own, and not at the behest of the Steelers.
After a couple more days of speculation, the NFLPA buckled and informed the National Football League that the players would indeed meet with Goodell.
Harrison has agreed to interview only under certain conditions. The fact that Harrison (and presumably Matthews and Peppers) have placed restrictions on the questions they are willing to answer could set the stage for further disagreement and controversy during the interviews – and possibly an effort to suspend them after the fact, if they are deemed to have not fully cooperated with the investigation. “Period. End of discussion”, Harrison said, per Kinkhabwala.
For Chicago Bears fans and other Packers’ rivals, any hope that Matthews and Peppers get suspended for PED use this year is nearly nil.
The league, which rejected a written affidavit from Harrison last month, will question Harrison about the Al Jazeera report which implicated him and others of alleged PED use. He was cleared by the league in July.
Al Jazeera America first raised the allegations in a documentary titled The Dark Side, which shook up the National Football League for its implications that Peyton Manning was among those using banned substances to get a leg up on the competition. The Players Association has claimed there is not enough evidence to merit interviews. Nonetheless, it seems as if the National Football League is getting what they want, and that is player cooperation.
“It is what it is”, NFLPA president Eric Winston said during an interview on PFT Live. While many people have spent plenty of time bashing the Al Jazeera report for being flimsy, if anyone actually watched the documentary, you would see the report is far more substantial than has been reported by U.S. outlets.
Stay tuned. However, if the league indeed has no evidence to support the claims in the Al-Jazeera report, this should wrap up the situation for Matthews and Peppers quickly while the NFLPA still may have a chance to fight the commissioner in the case of one player.
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Instead of risking a potential suspension, Harrison agreed to meet with the league. That’s likely the case with Peppers and Matthews as well, who were no doubt backed against the wall over the prospect of a suspension.
