Following a daylong negotiation between the NFL Players Association and NFL officials, the 32 player representatives will vote on a newly revised drug policy for the league on Tuesday.
Although there still remains some disagreement on issues, the NFLPA has agreed to vote on the latest drug policy proposal and overhaul the NFL's current provisions. The important aspects of the new proposed policy include raising the limits for marijuana testing, the expansion of neutral arbitration, and the league's first institution of human growth hormone testing.
The latest discussions regarding the NFL's drug policy stem from the suspension of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon. The 23-year-old was banned for the 2014 season after he failed his second drug test within a year. Many questioned the ruling, especially after the suspensions of Ray Rice (initially two games for domestic violence) and Jim Irsay (six games and $500,000 fine for a DWI arrest and possession of numerous pill bottles and over $29,000 in cash). Gordon failed drug tests for codeine and marijuana.
Under the new drug policy provisions, Gordon would not have been suspended. Now, if the policy is approved, the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos are going to fight for reinstatement of their players (Gordon and Wes Welker), but the new agreement likely will not reverse the current suspensions, just like how Ray Rice's two-game ban stood after Goodell altered the league's domestic violence policy (even though Rice was suspended indefinitely today after a video surfaced of him striking his wife in the Atlantic City hotel elevator).
NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith also plans to work to get players the right to undergo due process before a suspension is handed down for an arrest. He expressed his thoughts today in response to Jim Irsay's arrest and suspension.
"I do know that one significant sticking point will be any insistence that a player be punished or suspended upon arrest," Smith said, via PFT's Curtis Crabtree. "We believe that a player is entitled to due process. We also know the league made a decision not to suspend an owner who was recently arrested and I know the commissioner cited the need to have all the facts and for due process to play out. I agree."
