ESPN first reported Thursday that Harrison and Green Bay Packers players Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers agreed to speak with the league about a report by Al Jazeera America in December that implicated them and former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning in obtaining PEDs.
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“If that’s the case then somebody could come out and say James Harrison is a pedophile”. Thompson said the team would stand behind the 2 players.
“They’re asking me about PEDs, so ask away”, Harrison said.
“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. His suspension begins next month. He extended his invitation again on Tuesday.
This is the power Roger Goodell gained in winning his case against Brady. He said in a magazine article that if the commissioner were on fire, he would not urinate on him to put it out, that he hates him. Maybe the NFLPA doesn’t want him to talk? “I assume that he is going to do what he needs to do”.
It’s why the NFL Players Association, which serves the greater good of all players, has balked at cooperating.
Harrison is a longtime leader for the Steelers.
All three active players mentioned in the report will meet with the National Football League, but free agent Mike Neal will not. Rodgers did also say that both Peppers and Matthews will be cleared of any wrong doing and he’s very confident of that.
In any event, this sounds reasonably serious – if you think a suspension of star players next week is serious, anyway. The lead source for that report later recanted his claims.
SAINTS’ ROOKIE BREAKS LEG: New Orleans Saints defensive tackle and first-round draft choice Sheldon Rankins has been diagnosed with a broken fibula, an injury suffered during Monday’s practice in West Virginia, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
Birch, in his letter, said the league has made “at least seven attempts” to arrange the interviews.
The NFL also deemed the half-page statements submitted by the NFLPA on behalf of each player as a failure to meet the palyers’ obligations and accused Neal of making a statement that is “demonstrably false”. However Harrison, who has never seen eye to eye with Goodell, requested for his interview to come on August 29 at the Pittsburgh Steelers facility, and is only willing to discuss what was outlined in the Al Jazeera report.
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The suspensions would result from conduct detrimental and be separate from possible discipline the four players could face under the drug policies of the league, said the letter sent by Birch.
