National Football League

NFL drug-testing policy questioned

Published Jan. 20, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

After the Green Bay Packers' Jan. 9 playoff win against the Philadelphia Eagles, Pepper Burruss, the team's head trainer, wove through the locker room carrying a piece of paper with a list of names.

When he reached Scott Wells, the team's starting center, he stopped. "I'll see you tomorrow," Burruss said.

Wells instantly knew what the trainer meant and was mildly annoyed.

"I just had one," he said. Before moving on, Burruss told Wells he should be ready "between 10 and two."

When the trainer left, Wells turned to a reporter and shrugged. "Drug test," he said.

The NFL has long maintained that its drug testing program, which administers some 15,000 tests a year, is one of the toughest in North American sports. But anti-doping experts say exchanges like the one between Burruss and Wells raise serious questions about the general effectiveness of the program, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The problem, they say, is that by giving an athlete notice of a drug test the following day, one that would not be conducted for at least 15 hours, the Packers give the player ample time to take measures to "beat" the test by distorting his sample.

When Olympic athletes are visited by collectors, they are required to produce samples immediately and without leaving the testers' sight.

"If you're going to do advanced warning, you might as well not test," said David Howman, director general of the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees drug testing in all Olympic sports.

"Half an hour is a lot of warning. That's how quickly you can manipulate the tests."

The advance notice appears to violate the NFL's Policy on Anabolic Steroids and Related Substances, which states that all players who are subjected to in-season drug testing will be notified "on the day of the test."

"It's obviously concerning," said Travis Tygart, head of the US Anti-Doping Agency. "The world knows you can't give advanced notice for testing for it to be effective."

Burruss, through the team, declined to discuss the matter. Wells, through his agent, declined to comment further. A Packers spokesman confirmed that the notifications were for league-mandated drug tests, but deferred comment to the league office.

Adolpho Birch, the NFL's vice president of law and labor policy, said teams are notified about individual tests this far in advance only on game days. The reason, Birch said, is that many players are given days off after a game, and the league wants to make sure they show up to meet the collectors.

Under the policy, if a player is notified of a test but fails to appear, the NFL can take disciplinary action.

Birch said he does not agree that the warning compromises the accuracy of the tests.

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