The NFL submitted documents detailing its steroid policies to a congressional committee yesterday.
The House Government Reform Committee requested the documentation from the NFL last week. The committee summoned representatives of Major League Baseball to Capitol Hill last month for a hearing on that sport's steroid issues and has left open the possibility of conducting a hearing with NFL officials. Spokesmen for the committee and the NFL said the documents were delivered but declined to comment on their contents.
NFL Players Association chief Gene Upshaw said in an interview this week that the union is prepared to agree to measures to toughen the league's steroid-testing program in an effort "to eliminate the cheaters." Those were his first public comments since a report last week that three Carolina Panthers players filled steroid prescriptions from a South Carolina doctor within two weeks of playing in the Super Bowl in February 2004. The league and the union are discussing possible changes to the NFL's steroid policy.
Union Drops Coughlin Case
The union dropped a grievance it filed on behalf of three New York Giants players who were fined by Coach Tom Coughlin after showing up early to a team meeting just before last season, but not early enough to suit Coughlin.
The case was to be heard by an arbitrator late last week. But the players involved -- cornerback Terry Cousin and linebackers Barrett Green and Carlos Emmons -- didn't want to pursue the case. Cousin was released by the Giants this offseason and signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Coughlin fined the players $500 apiece after they arrived a few minutes early to the meeting, only to find it in progress.
