More To Come? NFL To Ask Union For Additional Drug Tests

Writers Feel NFL, Tagliabue Have Escaped Steroid Scrutiny From Fans

The NFL is “going to approach the (NFLPA) and ask if they can test more players randomly (for performance-enhancing drugs) than they’re already doing,” according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. Should the union agree to the request, the league “is all for it” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 8/28). After a Charlotte Observer story on Sunday detailed his report prepared for the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Dr. James Shortt and the Panthers players to whom he prescribed steroids, WADA member Gary Wadler said increased testing is “something the NFL has to look into.” But NFL VP/PR Greg Aiello defended the current policy: “We conduct about 10,000 steroid tests a year so chances are every player will be tested more than once a year” (USA TODAY, 8/29).

REAX TO CHARLOTTE REPORT: In St. Louis, Bryan Burwell writes while MLB Commissioner Bud Selig “has been a convenient punching bag for his naïve approach to drug enforcement in his sport, outgoing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue received a huge pass. ... Now is probably a good time to revoke the NFL’s free pass. Now would also be a good time to urge pro football’s new leader, Roger Goodell, to adopt even more stringent rules of drug enforcement when he takes over” on Friday (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 8/29). In Denver, David Krieger writes the Shortt story “has been out there for more than a year, and it’s still just a footnote to baseball’s steroid scandal. ... What we know from the documents in the Shortt case is that steroids tainted an NFL championship game less than three years ago. That’s more than we have on baseball, yet the NFL news draws barely a yawn” (ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, 8/29). SI.com’s Peter King wrote, “The entire 2003 season now may be tainted with substance-abuse issues with the Panthers. If that was in the game three years ago, we’d be naïve to think Carolina was the only team doing it. We’d be more naïve to think it’s less of a problem today” (SI.com, 8/28).