The new CBA contains among other things an agreement between the league and the union that HGH testing will be conducted. The two sides haven’t agreed on much since then.
The NFL and NFLPA have reached an impasse regarding the protocol, with the players recently playing once again the “we need more information” card. Regardless of whether the players mean it this time (they agreed to a new labor deal despite demands for financial information they never received), the delayed implementation of HGH testing has gotten the attention of the one body that can, if it so chooses, force the issue.
Fred Upton, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Michigan and a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, has penned a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith urging them to “quickly resolve any remaining issues” and launch HGH testing “in time for the season’s kickoff.”
Upton’s August 25 letter specifically questions the "[l]atent concerns” regarding “the reliability and soundness” of the proposed testing, which “are suddenly reappearing at a time when the league and the players need to begin implementing the test.”
And so, with the NFLPA failing in its effort to get Congress to drop a hammer on the NFL during the lockout, Congress could be ready to draw some blood from the union, literally and figuratively.
