HGH testing for the NFL stalled over discipline issue

The NFL and NFL Players Association butted heads Thursday over the proper administration of testing and punishment for human growth hormone. The NFL relented recently by agreeing to allow a third-party arbitrator handle simple positive test results, according to NFL.com’s Albert Breer, and now the only remaining issue between the two organizations is commissioner Roger Goodell’s power over the appeals process.

The NFL and the NFLPA could be in for another drawn-out battle over the coming days, with the league looking to maintain oversight over appeals involving the law and evidentiary cases (the Biogenesis case in Major League Baseball is an example of the latter). Players, wary of the power Goodell already wields in the league, would like to keep the appeals process out of league jurisdiction as much as possible.

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The NFL and NFLPA continue to negotiate on how human growth hormone tests should be conducted, but these discussions devolved to bickering Thursday, when the two sides took public shots at each other.

The use of a third-party arbitrator has become the latest sticking point. The players union wants power to be taken out of the hands of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in the enforcement of HGH policy, giving it to an outside entity. NFL vice president of labor policy and government affairs Adolpho Birch issued a statement Thursday calling the union’s demands “delay tactics,” brought about by what the NFL refers to as “buyer’s remorse” about the collective bargaining agreement signed by both sides in 2011. That agreement kept Goodell as the sole disciplinary authority in the league, which has been a contentious issue in regard to player suspensions.

The NFL and NFLPA haven’t agreed to widespread human growth hormone testing yet, but did take an important step Thursday as both sides agreed to third party arbitration in the case of a positive test.

This would take power away from commissioner Roger Goodell to decide on punishment, putting it in the third party’s hands. According to Pro Football Talk there is still some disagreement, as the league has not yet agreed to a third party deciding on appeals.

The NFL and NFLPA have reached an agreement on human growth hormone testing for the upcoming season, according to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun, who obtained a memo sent out by the players union.

This agreement comes one day after the two sides reached an agreement on a study that would determine the baseline levels of HGH hormones.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association are nearing an agreement on HGH testing and one of the first steps to that agreement is to establish a decision limit to determine what constitutes a positive test. In order to do so, every player participating in training camp will be required to give a blood sample, and those who test positive could be subject to reasonable cause testing through the end of the 2014 season, according to a release from the NFLPA.

If 5 percent or more of the samples tested come in above the decision limit, the positive results will be connected to players and those players will be subject to reasonable cause testing through the 2014 season. Any of those players who test positive again during that time will be suspended for eight games. If less than 5 percent are above the decision limit, no players will be subject to reasonable cause testing.

The NFL Players Association has agreed to an HGH population study, and has sent the proposal to the NFL to be finalized, according to Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports. The study will collect blood samples from every player in the NFL during training camp to establish benchmarks for positive and negative test results. The NFL and NFLPA had agreed to the study in principle prior to training camp.

According to Garafolo, the study is a first step to extensive testing for human growth hormone in NFL players. Currently, Major League Baseball is the only professional American sports league that tests for HGH. MLB did not undertake a population study before implementing testing protocols, however, potentially making the NFL’s study instructive for other sports leagues.

The NFL is the last major American sports league that does not current test players for human growth hormone. That could be changing soon as the league and the NFLPA move closer to a deal on testing. The players union notified agents on Monday that team would be collecting blood samples as part of a HGH population study.

Conducting a population study is the first step in reaching an agreement for testing. The purpose of the test is to determine what constitutes normal levels of the hormone are found naturally in the specific population of players. With that information, the two sides can determine a threshold for a positive test.