The fiasco that is the NFL investigation into alleged PED use by Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, among others, continues inexorably forward on the part of league officials, following another round of paperwork sent out to the NFLPA on Thursday, this time with threatening undertones.
The senior vice president of labor affairs for the NFL, Adolpho Birch, has responded to the NFLPA’s request for proof of credible evidence with what amounts to an outright rejection and an assertion of the league’s power over the players.
A copy of the letter sent by Birch was obtained by USA TODAY Sports and published in an article by Lindsay Jones last night, see’s the league taking a hard line with the NFLPA.
“While we readily agree that such evidence is required to support the imposition of discipline, nothing in the CBA or the policy imposes such a requirement before possible violations of the policy may be investigated. Obviously, the standard that you advocate — that the league cannot undertake an investigation unless and until it has established the facts and claims to be investigated — would simply ensure that there would be no investigations at all. For the same reason, we are under no obligation to disclose all evidence uncovered thus far as a condition to interviewing the players, which would clearly compromise the investigation.”
By all the accounts, the letter goes on to state that the Al Jareeza report is enough in its own right to warrant the investigation the league is undertaking, according to Jones, regardless that the key witness recanted his statement.
While the bulk of the letter is not overly surprising. The NFL also chose to take the opportunity to flex their muscle a little in the document with an additional and clearly threatening footnote when Birch apparently wrote:
“active players have an obligation to cooperate with league investigations and may be disciplined for failing to do so.”
It is hard to understand how the NFL believes using such rhetoric is productive when trying to reach a satisfactory conclusion in this case. The practical facts of the case suggest, failing an admission by Harrison to something he clearly asserts he has not done, the league has no chance in successfully making a case against him with limited facts.
Even if the documentary was taken as truth, Harrison is a non-factor in the piece, featuring, as has been pointed out on a number of occasions, for a mere 23 seconds in an hour-long airing.
From Harrison’s perspective, he has made it abundantly clear he is willing to speak to the league, but merely at a place and on a date of his choosing. At no point has he suggested he would not talk to investigators. The issue of allowing access to the players is a sticking point the players association has a problem with, not the people named in the report. However, it is interesting to note the league is leveraging sanctions aginst the individuals, rather than the NFLPA as an entity, to bully the outcome they want.
