Could HGH testing be in place for the 2013 NFL season?
According to Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports, that is very much a possibility. In a story published Friday night, Silver reported that the league and the NFLPA “seem to be closing in on a deal to implement the program in advance” of next season.
However, as Silver reported, there are still issues for both sides to overcome. According to Silver, one major hurdle is the union’s wish for a wider range of appeals of player-discipline decisions handed down by the league to be handled by an independent arbitrator, including those that aren’t violations of the substance-abuse and PED policies. Also, the league wants to perform gameday blood tests for HGH, Silver wrote.
“That is absolutely never going to happen,” an unnamed union source told Silver.
Silver reported that the NFLPA and NFL could resume negotiations on the HGH policy after each group has its annual meetings in the next two weeks. The NFLPA will consider the NFL’s most recent proposal next week at its meeting in the Bahamas, according to Yahoo! Sports.