James Harrison wants his meeting with Roger Goodell to be televised.
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Pittsburgh Steelers LB James Harrison is willing to meet with the NFL to discuss an alleged link to performance-enhancing drugs – but only five days after a deadline the league has imposed while threatening him and three other players with indefinite suspensions.
Adolpho Birch, the NFL’s senior vice president of labor policy and league affairs, sent a memo to the NFL Players Association warning that suspensions will go into effect on August 26 if the players fail to cooperate, USA Today reported.
After the Steelers’ 17-0 loss to the Eagles, Harrison dug in even more.
Asked if he’s concerned that Peppers and Matthews, two vital pieces of what the team hopes is a championship-caliber defense, will miss time, Rodgers replied, “There’s no way it’s going to cost them, I think, in this case”.
“I don’t want to let my teammates down”, he said.
The 38-year-old Harrison, a 14-year veteran, is one of the most-respected players in the Steelers’ locker room and his teammates seemed relieved Thursday night that he nearly certainly will avoid a suspension now that he has agreed to meet with Goodell.
According to the report, Charlie Sly, an intern at anti-ageing clinic, informed an undercover reporter about the use of PEDs by many athletes, including the four accused linebackers.
The NFL-NFLPA drug substances of abuse policy requires “sufficient credible documented evidence” in order to discipline. During NFL investigations, it’s not, “Anything you say can and will be used against you”; it’s, “Anything you say may be twisted and warped and distorted to fit our predetermined narrative”. Retired quarterback Peyton Manning was also cited in the report, but the NFL cleared him after a separate investigation in which the Broncos star granted interviews and provided all records sought by league investigators.
The 14-year veteran said his only motivation for meeting with the commissioner is that his suspension would hurt the Steelers.
Green Bay Packers inside linebacker Clay Matthews drinks water during the training camp at St. Norbert College on July 28. “They’ll do what they have to do”, said Harrison about the NFL. She closes by saying that Harrison will cooperate and agree to be interviewed as a “professional decision”. “They are going to suspend me, put me under investigation for being a pedophile just because somebody said it?” He said the hall’s plan to only refund ticket prices was too little.
Harrison said he wouldn’t have a problem with filming the proceedings.
Harrison would also like to see the interview broadcast live for transparency. Harrison was asked after Friday’s Eagles- Steelers preseason game why he chose to go ahead with the interview.
It came ahead of a potential interview with the National Football League after his name came up in an Al-Jazeera America report of performance-enhancing drug users.
The league appears to be chasing after the story mainly because of how unhelpful the players have been when they’ve been questioned about the situation. Affidavits were sent by the NFLPA on behalf of the players, but Birch dismissed each as statements “wholly devoid of any detail”. The lone holdout for the NFL’s request for an interview is free agent and former Green Bay Packer Mike Neal. So the league claimed that Rice lied during his interview with the league, with Goodell and others contending that Rice said he had merely “slapped” his then-fiancee, who then “knocked herself out”.
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“They are asking me about PEDs, so I mean ask away”, said Harrison. “That’s why the Steelers voted no”.
