The NFL revealed that each player "would be blood-tested once annually, and additionally would face an unlimited number of random blood tests for human growth hormone each year under the program scheduled to begin this season," according to Mark Maske of the WASHINGTON POST. An NFL spokesperson said that the blood testing "will be run much like the sport’s existing program for other banned performance-enhancing substances." Each player "would be given a scheduled blood-test for HGH once each year during the preseason." In addition, players "would be subject to year-round random testing." Each player "could be tested an unlimited number of times during the season and up to six times during the offseason." Maske noted the "steroids-testing policy could revert to last season’s terms, without blood-testing for HGH, if the two sides don’t work out the procedures." But under those circumstances, the players "would not be able to appeal disciplinary actions under the drug program to an independent arbitrator, as offered by the league during the negotiations for the new labor deal." NFL and NFLPA officials both "seem confident that testing procedures will be worked out in time for HGH blood-testing to begin the opening week of the season" (WASHINGTON POST, 8/7). League officials said that "this season, for the first time, drug tests would be conducted on game days." NFL VP/Law & Labor Policy Adolpho Birch, who is in charge of the testing program, said that "only a handful of players will receive notice of a drug test, following the last drug-testing policy." Birch: "The percentage of our players that receive any notice is under 5 percent. That’s only in very unique situations, where you have to get to Montana to test someone and we have to know the player is going to be there." An article in Saturday's N.Y. Times about the testing plan for HGH "was inaccurately described as requiring only one test a year" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/7).
FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS: In DC, Sally Jenkins wrote under the header, "NFL Makes Mistake By Following Crowd On Drug Testing." NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, "eager to sell the public on the NFL’s 'integrity,' wants players to be the poster boys for a new blood test, even though scientists are divided over its reliability." The players, "suffering from a sudden collapse of backbone and sense, are going along anyway, and have agreed to implement it by the season opener." Throughout the four-month lockout, players "fought for their wallets, and their rights, only to cave because they are afraid of criticism" if they went against WADA. Jenkins: "The players should refuse to consent to the new test. Instead they should sit down with Goodell and negotiate a whole new antidrug policy -- a better one" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 8/5). However, SPORTING NEWS' David Steele writes under the header, "Enlightened NFL Taking Lead On HGH Testing" (SPORTING NEWS TODAY, 8/7). In Cincinnati, Joe Reedy reported Bengals OT and player rep Andrew Whitworth is happy the labor struggle "is over and players can return to concentrating about on-field stuff." Whitworth said, "I think the players were pretty excited about some of the new benefits. It was a deal where owners got what they wanted and players got a lot in health and safety" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 8/7).
LOOK THE OTHER WAY? In N.Y., Judy Battista cited a source as saying that NFL players "who were first-time violators" of the league's personal-conduct policy during the lockout "will essentially get a pass, as long as they do not get in trouble again." First-time violators of the policy "will not be subject to discipline, but if they have a subsequent violation, it will be considered a second violation of the policy in terms of determining the appropriate discipline" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/6).
