Elijah Cummings isn't impressed with the NFL's argument, but does he see the whole picture? (Getty Images)
The argument about HGH testing between the NFL and the NFL Players Association has been going on for a number of years. It was the major chip that Commissioner Roger Goodell wanted in the current collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified in 2011, and it was the one major issue Goodell had to leave behind to get the season going on time after the lockout. Almost two years later, we seem to be no closer to a testing system that will satisfy both parties, and some folks on Capitol Hill are fed up with the whole thing.
"It's either put up or shut up," Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings said of the players during aWednesday interview with Jarrett Bell of USA Today. "They'll have to explain to the American public, why there's no testing. I don't think that it would be a pretty picture."
Cummings, who recently had Baltimore Ravens receiver Jacoby Jones interning in his office, blames the players for the holdup.
"They are pushing our committee into a corner, where we won't have any choice but for them to come to Washington."
The NFL last put forth a proposal for testing in March, and the NFLPA has not issued a public response. I've talked with NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith about where the players are with the process, and the primary issues are two: The Players Association wants a testing system that is regarded as universally reliable, and they want an independent and objective appeals process for those players who have tested positive under any system. For whatever reason, it's been tough for everyone to get on the same page.
Cummings' grandstanding aside, a recent suspension reversal that had nothing to do with the NFL on its face complicated the process. On March 26, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Andrus Veerpalu, an Estonian skier, should have his three-year suspension overturned after it was decided by a panel that the sample size and test accuracy figures put forth by WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency), whose tests the NFL would like to use, were not correct and did not line up to WADA claims.
“There is a proper test,” Goodell said last September. “WADA is implementing it in the Olympics. It is being used in Minor League Baseball. It is being used in sports throughout the world, obviously cycling where it has gotten a lot of attention. The test is developed to such a point where the technology is such that the window of detection has expanded to a point where it is more reasonable to detect the use of HGH.
"As that technology evolves, we have to evolve and so does the policy. It is appropriate and I think the Players Association agrees that it is appropriate to implement that. I hope we can get that done quickly.”
