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In Al Jazeera case, the NFL is dangerously overreaching

    by John Smallwood
    Published 
Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson may have some issues with the way things are going down, but the NFL is at least treating him fairly under the guidelines of the collective bargaining agreement.
Johnson failed a drug test and even if he is correct in claiming that the product he used was on a cleared list, the CBA says players are ultimately responsible for what goes into their bodies.
If he gets popped with a suspension, he gets popped.
The case the NFL is apparently trying to make against Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and free agent defensive end Mike Neal is more questionable.
As far as we know, the NFL does not have positive tests on these players, but according to a letter from the NFL to the NFL Players Association, the league plans to suspend the four players indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the league if they do not give interviews to league investigators by Aug. 25.
The letter which was obtained on Monday by several media outlets, is in relation to a documentary by now defunct Al Jazeera America that named those players among many athletes as having received performance enhancing drugs.
Part of the letter that was published by “Pro Football Talk” said, “For those players whose interviews do not take place on or before that date, or who fail meaningfully to participate in or otherwise obstruct the interview, their actions will constitute conduct detrimental and they will be suspended, separate and apart from any possible future determination that they violated the steroid policy. 
"The suspension for each such player will begin on Friday, August 26 and will continue until he has fully participated in an interview with league investigators, after which the Commissioner will determine whether and when the suspension should be lifted.”
I’m all for the league trying to do what is necessary to remove PEDs from the game, but there cannot be unlimited authority for Commissioner Roger Goodell to do whatever he wants in that pursuit.
The NFL is not the government but there are still basic rights under the U.S. Constitution that all Americans should be entitled to.
The NFL is at the point where it feels it does not have to follow any rules in regards to rights that Americans hold dear.
Again, the NFL is apparently not basing this action on a failed drug test from any of these players.
It has simply decided that the Al Jazeera report – whose primary source has since recanted his accusations – is enough to force these players to be cooperative in an investigation or be suspended.
If any of those players are actually guilty, I’d like to see them suspended as cheaters, but the system cannot work this way.
If the NFL has nothing more than unsubstantiated claims that have been taken back, Goodell should not have the authority to call in players and subject them to the “chair in a dark room with a white light” treatment.
That would open the door for Goodell to call in any player he wanted to harass about anything the league wanted based on the slightest innuendo.
The NFLPA argues that the league does not have the right to force players to cooperate in an investigation unless it has “credible evidence” that the player used a PED.
The NFL argues that the purpose of the interviews would be to determine if there is any credible evidence.
I don’t think any American believes that’s the way things are supposed to work. The burden of proof is not supposed to be on the accused.
I don’t think anyone believes that Goodell, as a patsy of the NFL owners, could be trusted if there were no checks and balances for cause of action against players.
The NFL should have its own “credible proof” first before it is allowed to suspend players for not cooperating in an investigation.
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    JS
    John Smallwood
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