NFL clears Harrison, others, in PED scandal
After months of fighting with the players’ union, the NFL got its wish last week when the rest of the names implicated in the Al Jazeera PED documentary last December–James Harrison, Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers and Mike Neal–finally spoke to league investigators (quarterback Peyton Manning had long-since been interviewed and was cleared).
As expected, the evidence that seemed flimsy and centered around the statements Charlie Sly made while speaking to an undercover reporter (Sly later recanted those statements when the Al Jazeera report aired) wasn’t sufficient, as the NFL announced on Wednesday that it has cleared all current players who were under investigation (Neal, a free agent, wasn’t named as a player officially cleared of any wrongdoing).
Without much forensic evidence to speak of (for example, Harrison has never failed a drug test), the NFL would have had a real fight on its hands had it gone ahead and suspended any of the players implicated.
Of course, given how quickly the league cleared everyone involved, it seems kind of silly now that this story was dragged out the entire offseason, all the way through training camp and didn’t come to a conclusion until less than two weeks before the start of the regular season.
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Obviously, the league had a right to interview the players mentioned in the Al Jazeera documentary, but without much evidence other than Sly’s words, one had to wonder what the NFL hoped to get out of these interviews.
Evidently, the investigators got enough to close the case and put this matter to bed once and for all.
As for Harrison, 38, the legendary outside linebacker can move forward with an NFL career that was thought to be over two years ago, when he announced his retirement, only to be coaxed out if it when Jarvis Jones suffered a wrist injury in Week 3.
Harrison, with a 74.5 sacks as a Steeler, needs just three more to become the all-time franchise leader in that category.
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