Report: Players named in Al-Jazeera report will speak to NFL
Three players linked to performance-enhancing drugs in an Al-Jazeera documentary have agreed to interviews with the NFL after previously refusing, reports ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.
The Packers’ Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers and the Steelers’ James Harrison are set to be interviewed by the NFL, who are conducting an investigation based on the allegations in the Al-Jazeera report, which came out late last year.
The players had been refusing interviews, but earlier this week the NFL threatened to suspend them under the conduct-detrimental clause if they did not cooperate with the investigation.
• Understanding the NFL’s motive to suspend players implicated by Al Jazeera report
Harrison will reportedly meet with the league on Aug. 29 at the Steelers’ team facility. He told the league he will only answer questions based on information in the Al-Jazeera report, according to Mortensen. It is not known if the league has agreed to these conditions.
The dates for Matthews’s and Peppers’s meetings have not been set. A fourth player named in the report, free-agent Mike Neal, has yet to agree to an interview, reports Mortensen.
[ESPN]
