The League

Other Leagues Back NFL in StarCaps Case

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Analysis

There is plenty at stake in the NFL's still-ongoing legal tussle with Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams over the four-game suspensions that the league attempted to impose on the players last season for testing positive for a banned diuretic.

For the players, they would lose nearly a quarter of their salaries for the upcoming seasons if the suspensions are upheld.

For the Vikings, they would lose the sturdy interior of their defensive line for a significant chunk of what they hope could be a highly successful season.

But those in the NFL's offices believe something even bigger is at stake: the independence of the drug-testing program that the league collectively bargained with its players' union.

And other pro sports leagues and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency agree.

For years, while the leaders of baseball were lectured by lawmakers on Capitol Hill for their efforts, or lack thereof, to rid their sport of steroids, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and late union chief Gene Upshaw generally were lauded whenever they appeared before a Congressional committee examining the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The NFL's program for testing players and punishing offenders wasn't perfect, Tagliabue and Upshaw usually were told by members of Congress; but at least the NFL was making what seemed to be its best effort. Upshaw wasn't obstructionist on the issue. He said repeatedly that he wanted steroid cheaters out of the league to protect the players who were clean.

So it's against that backdrop that the diuretic case involving the two Vikings players has played out, in both state and federal courts, in recent months. The Williamses, who are not related, are among a group of NFL players who tested positive for the diuretic bumetanide, which is on the league's list of banned substances as a possible masking agent for steroids. The players indicated that they ingested bumetanide unknowingly by using the weight loss product StarCaps. They maintained that representatives of the NFL's testing program had prior knowledge that StarCaps contained bumetanide and failed to warn players with a proper degree of specificity.

The NFL contends that it met its obligations, including those involving issuing warnings about a particular supplement maker, under the terms of its collectively bargained program, and that players are held responsible for what's in their bodies--even substances ingested unknowingly in a supplement--under the terms of that program.

Attorneys for the two Vikings players have managed to keep the suspensions on hold during the legal back and forth. A federal judge in effect threw out most of the claims in a lawsuit brought by the NFL Players Association on behalf of the Vikings players and players on other teams affected by the league's original decision. But the federal judge sent two claims revolving around Minnesota workplace laws back to a state court in which the Williamses had filed a separate lawsuit.

The case continues to play out on two fronts. Both sides have appeals of the federal judge's ruling pending. Meanwhile, the state court judge who put the suspensions of the Williamses on hold is in the process of deciding whether to conduct a trial on the claims before him.

To the NFL, the issue is simple: The terms of its drug-testing program, collectively bargained with the players' union, should take precedence.

Other leagues agree: The NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball filed a brief with the federal appeals court supporting the NFL's position.

"In order for professional sports leagues' drug testing programs to be effective, they must apply equally to all players in the league, regardless of their or their team's home state," the other leagues' brief said. "Without uniform requirements and procedures, the sports leagues would be unable properly to maintain competitive balance or any semblance of integrity, and instead would be held hostage to the individual rules of each state legislature. No one would reasonably suggest, for example, that it is fair for a team from New York to play a team from Illinois, while the team from New York is aided by certain substances that the team from Illinois is prohibited from using, simply because of the different rules of the home states."

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency also filed a brief in support of the NFL's position.

"We're very gratified by the support we've received from the other leagues and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency," Jeff Pash, the NFL's general counsel, said by telephone this week. "The leagues all have collective bargaining agreements and they have teams in Minnesota, and they understand the importance of having uniform testing programs that apply to all players. To say that players in Minnesota get an exemption makes no sense. It brings down the entire program."

Pash said that the U.S. Anti-Doping agency is "saying that to preserve the integrity of the competition, and for fans to have confidence in the outcome, you have to have one set of rules. We thank those four organizations. Three of them have confirmed our position that this is a matter for collective bargaining. We have a program that is collectively bargained, and we ought to let it operate."

Hennepin County District Court Judge Gary Larson conducted a hearing Wednesday and is scheduled to make a ruling by Aug. 7. Oral arguments before the federal appeals court, if they're deemed necessary, are scheduled for Aug. 18.

A resolution finally could be near in a case that could have a significant impact on the NFL's drug-testing program.

By Mark Maske  |  July 22, 2009; 12:09 PM ET  | Category:  League , Steroids , Union , Vikings Save & Share:                 
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