August 22, 2016 at 1:56 p.m.
Shoutouts & Callouts
Shoutouts & Callouts
Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers must feel the same way right now. However, unlike the character from "Blazing Saddles," their role in the latest staring match between the NFL and the NFLPA is far from a laughing matter.
Matthews and Peppers have agreed to meet with NFL investigators to discuss a report alleging a link between the two and performance enhancing drugs, but it's an investigation that should never have gotten to this point in the first place.
The story, an Al-Jazeera report with more holes than a 30-year-old cheesehead, most notably connected Peyton Manning to using PEDs while rehabilitating from a neck injury that cost him the 2012 season. The eyewitness in that report has since recanted his statement, but that hasn't stopped the NFL from conducting an inquest on those implicated in the report - including Matthews, Peppers and former Packer Mike Neal.
The NFL has been trying to interview Peppers, Matthews since the start of training camp and has demanded the two speak to investigators by Thursday or face an indefinite suspension by the league.
One would think this should be easy for the two. If there's no hard evidence to suggest they did in fact take PEDs, then they should have nothing to fear in the investigation, right?
Try telling that to Tom Brady.
Brady was punished not so much for his role in the Deflategate scandal, after an NFL investigation determined it was "more likely than not" that Brady was "generally aware" of a scheme to deflate game balls below league specified air pressures prior to the AFC championship game in January 2015. Brady's sitting out four games more for his actions during the NFL's investigation, a suspension that was finally upheld in court following more than a year of appeals.
This appears to have emboldened the NFL in its ongoing power struggle with the players' union involving disciplinary actions. The players' association has long been at odds with the league over commissioner Roger Goodell's role as judge, jury and executioner when it comes to league discipline.
So here are Matthews and Peppers caught between a rock and a hard place. The union is clearly advising them not to submit blindly to the NFL's inquisition, however the NFL is saying they must, or else.
While I understand the NFL's efforts to do due diligence to weed out potential dopers, from what we know of the Al-Jazeera report it's credibility is sketchy, at best. If this were purely a matter of a drug investigation, it seems as if this case should have been dismissed a long time ago due to a lack of evidence.
But it's not. It's another example of the league attempting to run roughshod over its players, and the fate of the Packers' defense for the 2016 season could rest in the hands of Goodell. That's a scary thought.
Extra point: The issue, in broader context
The labor aspect of this story is certainly at play, however it's, sadly, also part of a greater conversation regarding PEDs in sports.
Based on the evidence presented, do I think that Matthews and Peppers have used PEDs? No, I don't. However, it would not surprise me if one day it turns out they have. That's the bigger issue here.
Like it or not, we've lived through Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds. We once viewed Lance Armstrong as a national hero, until he was outed for the cheat that he was. One of the predominant stories of the recently completed Olympics was doping scandals involving Russia and Kenya.
Then there's Ryan Braun. He's the one who, once and for all, made me look at every athlete in a suspicious light. In this very column, I defended Braun during his battle with MLB over the Biogenesis investigation. I proclaimed Braun vindicated when testers botched the handling of a October 2011 drug test, calling it proof Braun was clean and had nothing to hide.
Turns out I was wrong - dead wrong - and henceforth the words of Pete Townsend will ring through my mind, "We won't get fooled again."
As amazing as the Olympic performances of Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and others were, part of me can't help but wonder if they were tainted in any way by PEDs. The same holds true for Matthews, Peppers or any Packer for that matter. I'd love to believe they are clean, and more than likely they are, but I just don't know.
Guilty until proven innocent. That flies directly in the face of one of the major tenets our country was founded on, however, it's the way I feel I have to view any athlete who has in anyway been tied to PEDs, directly or indirectly. Who does that hurt? It hurts the fans who put blindly put their devotion behind their favorite players. And it hurts the athletes who are doing it the right way.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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