NFLPA, NFL Officials React Following House Hearing On HGH

NFLPA and NFL officials reacted to today's U.S. House Oversight & Government Reform Committee hearing "focused on establishing the current science on the accuracy of drug testing," particularly as it relates to HGH in the NFL. No union or league rep was invited to the hearing itself. NFLPA Assistant Exec Dir of External Affairs George Atallah: "I don't think we're going to put an artificial timeline or deadline on when testing will take place." He added that the union "still wants a 'population study' of NFL players to ease its concerns."

NFL Senior VP/Law & Labor Policy Adolpho Birch "smiled at Atallah's suggestion that the union was just waiting for the NFL to choose a doctor to oversee the study." Birch: "If we were just choosing a doctor, I guess we wouldn't be just choosing a doctor for the last nearly a year now. At the end of the day, this idea (of a population study) is doing nothing but delaying the implementation of testing. It is not necessary as everyone has heard" (USATODAY.com, 12/12).