The League

Waxman says legislation possible

UPDATED (2:26 p.m.)...

A Congressional leader said Tuesday that lawmakers might have to enact legislation to address issues raised in the case in which court rulings have prevented the NFL from enforcing its four-game suspensions of two Minnesota Vikings players for testing positive last year for a banned substance.

"One thing is clear: We should not allow the drug policies that the NFL, Major League Baseball and other sports have put in place to be rendered null and void," Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said at a hearing of a House subcommittee. "That is an invitation to steroid abuse in professional sports. And it will inevitably lead to more steroid use on high school football fields and baseball diamonds."

Waxman is the chairman of the House committee on energy and commerce. Tuesday's hearing came before a subcommittee of Waxman's committee, the House subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection.

Waxman said in his opening statement that "recent rulings in the case of Williams vs. the NFL, better known as the StarCaps case, threaten to undermine this progress" in ridding professional sports of performance-enhancing drugs.

"The reason we are having this hearing today is that recent court decisions involving the National Football League's drug testing policy have put this progress at risk," Waxman said.

He also said: "This is a serious problem because some state laws undermine the stringent sanctions established by the sports leagues and their players associations. If these rulings prevail, they could wreak havoc with policies designed to curb performance-enhancing drug use in professional sports. In fact, if the rulings are taken to their logical conclusion, players on one team could be allowed to use drugs that would subject players on another team to suspensions and fines.... These new legal interpretations could render the NFL and Major League Baseball drug testing programs unenforceable, loophole-ridden and unacceptably weak and ineffective. I believe we can--and must--avoid this outcome."

Waxman said that Congress should act only if the courts or the parties--the NFL and its players' union--are unable to resolve the issues raised in the case.

"I am hopeful that the courts will ultimately rule that the strong collectively bargained drug policies can stand against state laws that would weaken them," Waxman said. "But if that is not the case, then we need to find out if the collective bargaining process can solve these problems or whether congressional action is needed."

Other lawmakers also said legislation might be necessary. But Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), the chairman of the subcommittee, also said the league and union first should be given a chance to resolve the matter through collective bargaining.

"It is in all of our interests for these parties to reach an agreement on this enormously important matter," Rush said.

Rush said that Congress is reluctant to act at this point but will keep a "wary eye" on developments because the case is "currently sending the wrong message."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the subcommittee Tuesday that Congress should enact "narrow" legislation to ensure that the league's collectively bargained steroid-testing program supersedes any state laws with which it might conflict.

Goodell also criticized the NFL Players Association for its role in the case, saying this was the first time he had attended a hearing on Capitol Hill regarding the league's steroid-testing program without the full support of the players' union.

Goodell rejected the suggestion that the case will be problematic only if the Vikings players ultimately prevail in court. Goodell pointed out that the players continue to play this season with the case pending.

"This is not a potential problem," Goodell said in response to a question by Rush. "It's an existing problem.... We believe it should be addressed now."

DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the players' union, defended the union's actions in the case, saying it merely was attempting to protect the rights of the players involved.

Smith said the union will work with the league to ensure player safety, and the issues raised in the case should be resolved through the collective bargaining process.

"I believe in the program that resulted from collective bargaining," Smith said.

Smith told the subcommittee that players' appeals of disciplinary action taken under the steroid-testing program should be heard by an independent arbitrator, not a representative of the NFL.

Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of labor and human resources, told the subcommittee that "a narrowly drafted statute could solve the problem faced by professional sports while avoiding undue interference with the prerogatives of the states and preserving the primary role of collective bargaining in setting the substantive terms of drug programs in sports."

Michael Weiner, the general counsel of the Major League Baseball Players Association, told the subcommittee that the baseball players' union opposes Congressional action and the case has had no impact on baseball's steroid-testing program.

The league attempted to impose four-game suspensions on Vikings defensive tackles Pat Williams and Kevin Williams last year for testing positive for bumetanide, a diuretic that's on the league's list of banned substances as a possible masking agent for steroids.

The players indicated they ingested the diuretic unknowingly by taking the weight loss product StarCaps. The players and the NFL Players Association took legal action, contending that representatives of the league's steroid-testing program had prior knowledge that StarCaps contained bumetanide but failed to warn players properly.

The case has played out in both federal and state courts. A federal appeals court upheld a previous ruling by a federal judge rejecting most of the claims by the players and the union, but also sending two issues involving Minnesota workplace laws back to a state court to be decided there. The state court has indicated that it is unlikely to hold a trial during the current NFL season, keeping the two Vikings players eligible to play this season.

The NFL announced that it would not enforce its suspensions of two New Orleans Saints players, defensive ends Will Smith and Charles Grant, for testing positive last year for bumetanide because it would be unfair for them to be suspended while the two Vikings players continue to play.

Drug-testing experts have said the court rulings in the case have made athletes in Minnesota subject to a different set of drug-testing rules than athletes in different states.

League counsel Jeff Pash has said that the NFL might turn over control of its steroid-testing program in the future to the World Anti-Doping Agency or a federal agency if it finds that it cannot continue to run the program effectively in cooperation with the players' union.

By Mark Maske  |  November 3, 2009; 12:11 PM ET  | Category:  League , Steroids , Union
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