The Lack of Drug Testing in the NFL

The NFL players union doesn’t want to allow for drug testing. Why?

The NFL lockout concluded with a gentleman's agreement to continue negotiating in good faith around the league's HGH-testing policies. There was too much money at stake and everyone wanted to get back onto the field. But now we’re a couple of months into the season and both sides have yet to settle on a mutually agreeable testing policy. Why? Because HGH use amongst the players is prominent, and neither the player's association, nor the league (despite their public posturing), are particularly eager to see stringent testing instituted.

As was the case in cycling and MLB, performance enhancing drugs have become a keeping up with the Joneses proposition in the NFL. They’re table stakes to make it to the show. While there's nothing saying you must do them, if everyone around you takes the plunge, and your job security is predicated on performing well, then the choice becomes significantly harder not to take them.

It’s easy to point fingers at the players, but the NFL is the party at fault here. If they were/are actually serious about testing, it would have been a sticking point in lockout negotiations instead of a leverage point. But in a league based on being bigger, faster, and stronger than the next man, it's irresponsible to leave it up to the players to decide whether to take HGH or not.

The problem is, the viewing public doesn't necessarily care about this issue either. They want to see hard hits, big plays, and athletes that come back healthy every week. That's what matters to them. The NFL understands this, and so if faced with a product that could suffer from the removal of HGH, or one that could continue to thrive because of it, which do you suspect they'd lobby for? Exactly.