It’s been well documented that there will be no drug testing during the NFL lockout. It’s worth remembering that there will be no drug counseling or treatment either.
The NFL’s drug testing czar Adolph Birch is concerned.
“If guys do not continue to take advantage of the program, I’m concerned about them, their families, the people who depend on them and that the progress that has been made may not continue,” Birch told Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com.
Players could continue to get treatment, but they would have to pay for it.
“We have advised those players who were either receiving treatment or testing that they could continue to see the clinicians they were seeing,” Birch said. “Obviously, they’d have to be doing that on their own and it would entirely be their choice. But that option is available to them.”
That sounds great, but the reality is that players won’t take advantage of the treatment if they had to pay for it. And if the NFL really cared about the issue, they wouldn’t lock the players out.
If anything, it seems disingenuous at this stage for the owners or players to pretend they truly care about anything else in this work stoppage other than their share of the money.
