NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell "pledged a thorough investigation" after Al Jazeera America aired a documentary in December that linked Peyton Manning and five other NFLers to either HGH or PEDs, but 177 days later, there has been "nothing of real substance," according to Emily Kaplan of THE MMQB. Goodell had "promised to begin 'immediately' after the allegations surfaced." The NFL has indeed "opened an investigation into allegations that HGH was shipped to Manning’s home" and has "conducted interviews." But the NFL has "not interviewed one current player who was named in the Al Jazeera report." Kaplan: "Could bureaucratic tension between the NFL and the NFLPA be the stalling factor?" Protocol "calls for the NFL to arrange interviews through the NFLPA." NFL Exec VP/Communications Joe Lockhart said that the league "has gathered its information and has been ready to interview the players for 'some time.'" But Lockhart said that the NFLPA "is stalling." Lockhart: "We have pushed to do them sooner. ... if we have to, we’ll do them during training camp." However, Lockhart said that the NFL "hopes to get them down before training camp." Free agent LB Mike Neal "is welcoming an investigation to clear his name." Neal "was the only implicated player to hit the free-agent market this offseason, and he remains unsigned" (MMQB.SI.com, 6/20).
