With time running out on plans to begin human growth hormone testing at the start of the regular season, NFL Players Association president Domonique Foxworth on Thursday urged the league to abandon its stance on commissioner Roger Goodell's role in the appeals process, Tom Pelissero of USA Today reports. The league already has agreed to send appeals of positive drug tests to a third-party officer with experience in drug-testing matters. But the NFL has been adamant that Goodell should retain authority on appeals of punishments that don't involve a positive test. "If the NFL justifies keeping Roger's power because of the CBA, then why did they agree to change it for every other part of the new policy?" Foxworth wrote in an email to USA TODAY Sports. "The fact is he wants a 'carve out' and an exception to neutral arbitration. All of our players voted for fairness." Adolpho Birch, the NFL's senior vice president of labor policy and government affairs, quickly responded in a statement by calling it a case of "buyer's remorse" for the union. "NFL players two years ago overwhelmingly agreed to HGH testing and to continuing the commissioner's longstanding disciplinary authority in cases where a player is found to have violated the law by a judge or jury," Birch said in the statement. "The union's latest demand has nothing to do with appeals from positive drug tests, nothing to do with ensuring a level playing field and nothing to do with keeping players safe from dangerous substances. It is simply a case of buyer's remorse, and an effort to renegotiate part of a long-term agreement that they have now decided they don't like. "The union knows that HGH testing is the right thing to do for our game, for its membership, and for the millions of people who look to the NFL and NFL players to set the example for fair and exciting play. It is time for the NFLPA to stop the delay tactics, to move forward for the good of the game and players, and stop focusing on protecting people that break the law. Source: The Redzone
