But it is an employment issue that was agreed to in contract by the NFL and NFLPA.
It sucks, don't get me wrong. I would have hoped that the NFL would have stopped this when the person recanted their story.
I think with a minimal amount of cooperation from the players, it would have ended very quickly. Recanting alone wasn't enough to stop their inquiry, but minimal cooperation back in March/April (whenever) from the players would have been, I think. It would have quickly been forgotten.
I never allowed any employer to BOSS me in any manor. Furthermore on the one occasion that I was called upon to testify truthfully about an incident, rather than lie and see a fine technician blamed, I told the truth and saw a nuclear engineer assume the responsibility for his actions . It was not what those in power wanted to see happen as they were trying to protect their engineer, but burning the innocent man would have been even worse .
If you live in fear of an employer, or those in power, they will feed on that fear and grow more arrogant . I pity anyone that can be held hostage to a job, no matter how good the job.
But that is why Goodell's actions will ultimately be self defeating. In a normal environment (say Tagliabue or Rozelle), the NFLPA might be more inclined to believe it is not precedent setting to have an interview under these circumstances.
But Roger is maximizing every chance he has to rule against players. I have no doubt that if they refused to be interviewed, it would not be a Favre non-cooperation fine or a Brady-like 4 game sentence. They would be gone until Roger is satisfied. And what satisfied Roger is not written down anywhere. It exists in the press reception of news and the opinions of his owners.
The human "RACE' is adversarial, that is how many progress through life (Sadly) . The rarity is when you encounter those very few that qualify as human. Most people imitate the wolf as they prowl stealth-fully awaiting their chance to grab a share of the latest kill. Even in the most friendly of companies, advancement opportunities are reserved for family or a small circle of good ole boys or as a reward for reporting on your fellow workers. The current workplace today has become an environment of distrust and stress as more is continually expected from the same amount of resources and fear of being terminated is held over the heads of workers like a horse whip.
Goodell is no different, his power increases with each of his rulings . This elevates his position (and the owners) going forward. These accumulated bargaining chips of precedents set give him and the owners a stronger place to negotiate from in the future. If he can increase the fear level in the league, he can easier direct the league where the owners have told him to proceed.
If I had to sign a contract that contained a morals clause , I'd most likely reject it after reading it. Football players and other athletes don't have the option that other professions afford. The NFL, NBA, MLB , and other sports are monopolies that operate in their own best interest. The Billions of Dollars they make put them in the powerful position of dictating not just sports league rules , but also the power to manipulate people in their private lives. I still can't see where it's the leagues business if a player gets in trouble with the law as long as said player does not miss any of his job related activities. PED's do need to be tested for, but busting a player for smoking a little "legal" Marijuana in a state where it is legal is just plain intruding into another's personal life. Yet that's just where Goodell's morality squad are invading . After all, they'ere not operating heavy equipment or flying airplanes.
Just a couple of points to mix up the mess:
1. The news organization that broke the story - Al Jazeera America is now defunct for a reason.
2. As has been pointed out, the reporter associated with the story has recanted.
3. Peyton Manning, the reigning Superbowl Champion QB, was also implicated in the very same report. He is now successfully retired and unscathed.
4. I have an uneasy sense of dread I am about to be Patlerized.
5. The only "Imposition" to which I can relate is my In Laws unexpectedly showing up and staying for the July 4th holiday.
ProFootballTalk @ProFootballTalk 3h3 hours ago
This Al Jazeera investigation could be the tipping point for fans and media to realize that the NFL routinely overreaches on discipline.
BET YOU A DINNER IT IS NOT.
GO MEADOW GO!
Really? Let's look at Brady - IMO he went well beyond 'minimal cooperation'. By all accounts, he turned over records from the telecom company with all the texts from the time in question from his personal phone. He submitted to interviews. Roger still went after him tooth and nail, and focused on one item, text messages from a destroyed phone, and hung him for that.
If I was in the shoes of these players, I would be awful nervous that co-operating could end badly because Goodell, for instance, wants them to give him the GPS tracking information from their car...
^ That is the worst thing about that whole case. He was eventually dinged more for not cooperating than for the evidence of his involvement in the original crime.
I think the cases and situations are different from the leagues perspective.
Deflategate was viewed by the league as calling into question the legitimacy and fairness of how the game is played. It involved a team that had stretched the rules in the past, if not blatantly violated them. They smelled another act of unfairness. In their mind, it demanded a resolution.
The Al Jazeera situation was another in the line of ongoing drug annoyances, but the source was more distasteful than the alleged violation. They couldn't ignore it, but they would rather that it just go away quietly. To convey the appearance of due diligence in their investigation, it would be necessary to talk to the players.
Question : If you are a sub-group of NFL owners that the other owners follow and you want to hurt the NFLPA , but you want to remain out of the spotlight, what do you do ?
Answer : You get your commissioner to pounce upon an unproven story and threaten players . Weather you win or loose, the players look bad in the media as you come off as the high moral standards champion . In addition, you wave the commissioners gavel of power over the players heads and remind them who is in charge . All this pleases the owners who never saw a headline that they did not like .
Vikings will run away with division at this point
PFT with the occasional good points about why agreeing to be interviewed is dangerous in and of itself:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...ped-interview/Quote:
Before anyone suggests that I remove the tin-foil hat, that tin-foil hat came in handy during the Saints bounty scandal, when the NFL tried to put words in Anthony Hargrove’s mouth in order to bolster the appearance that Hargrove was anxious to recover payment for battering Vikings quarterback Brett Favre in the 2009 NFC title game. That tin-foil hat also came in handy when dissecting the backward-ass junk science of #DeflateGate, along with comparing Tom Brady’s sworn testimony during his internal appeal to the manner in which Brady’s words were distorted in the appeal ruling from Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Football players aren’t lawyers or linguists, skilled in properly maneuvering and manipulating words in order to avoid giving the league through inadvertence or lack of precision a chunk of syllables that can be used to support a Constanza-esque “a-ha!” and a finding of guilt that the league office is hoping to impose. So when the players tell the truth with words that may be bent into an alternative version of the truth, that’s a very good reason to not say anything.
Then there’s the possibility that they’ll be asked a laundry list of questions about any and all communications with Charles Sly, the former Guyer Institute employee/intern/whatever whose claims already have been deemed to be not credible as to retired quarterback Peyton Manning but somehow retain potential credibility as to Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, Packers linebacker Julius Peppers, Steelers linebacker James Harrison, and free-agent defensive lineman Mike Neal. If/when the players deny knowing, talking to, texting, or emailing Sly, next will quite possibly come the request for (drum roll, please) their cellphones, so that the absence of any communications with Sly can be confirmed.
Just read that, and it does a good job of summing up how I feel about this.
It also makes me think 1 of 2 things about the Peyton interview.
1. It gave them reason to believe something is going on, but they exonerated Peyton because a)they can't touch him b) he's Peyton
2. They're happy there's nothing to see here, but want to exert their authority, mostly on Harrison.
Just heard on another forum that the players have agreed to do the interviews. Can anyone confirm that?
Tom Silverstein @TomSilverstein 23m23 minutes ago
New from JSOnline and PackersNews: Matthews, Peppers agree to PED interviews http://ift.tt/2b7rYWj #Packers
Rob Demovsky
ESPN Staff Writer
Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers have agreed to meet with the NFL regarding the Al-Jazeera PED investigation. According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, all players named have agreed to meet, although Steelers LB James Harrison has set certain stipulations for his Aug. 28 meeting. No date known yet for Matthews and Peppers' interviews.
.Quote:
In a letter from the NFL Players Association on behalf of Harrison, obtained by Rapoport, Harrison agreed to make himself available at 5 p.m. on August 29 at the Steelers' facility. In the statement, Harrison and the NFLPA "agree that this interview is occurring on a non-precedential basis" and reserve the right to fight any punishment stemming from the investigation.
That, but maybe as some writers are hypothesizing is that he is going to be the 'test case' the NFLPA will pursue on this matter.
So many subplots to all this, and I am torn about how I feel. I personally have very little doubt there is a lot of PED usage in the NFL. I understand's Patler's view, and agree that the NFL should look very closely at this or they risk a MLB-like congressional hearing. But Goodell's recent unprecedented usage of the Commissioner's powers is a problem too.
It's obvious the player's are a little surprised, and likely didn't quite know the extent of power he had - witness Rodger's comment about Goodell being "I think there’s probably too much pressure to come back to a deal when we had all the power on our side.” As PFT pointed out, that part of the commissioner's power has been around since the NFL's first CBA, it's just never been used (abused?) to this extent.
And Harrison's request to have the interview filmed, and even televised is crazy - but crazy like a fox. There is definitely a need for transparency here, and doing this all behind closed doors is what could land this in court, or a congressional hearing!
Televising it would be smart and the NFL will never agree to do it.
They wouldn't let him record his drug test either. I think a video recording* of the interview should be a requirement. After the Ray Rice video came out, there were conflicting versions of what he did and did not say during his interview, and nothing to refer back to.
*said video recording not to be safeguarded by whatever NFL department was in charge of the Patriot's practice tapes!
a couple of baseball players named in the report have been exonerated.
^ Yeah, but this year I know I am right!