NFL Players Association News & Rumors

Latest On NFL Personal Conduct Policy

November 28th, 2014 at 10:08pm CST by Luke Adams

The NFL Players Association got a win of sorts today when Judge Barbara S. Jones overturned the league’s indefinite suspension of former Ravens running back Ray Rice, but the decision won’t necessarily result in any major changes to the NFL’s disciplinary process. Tom Pelissero of USA Today reports (via Twitter) that the league expects to complete and announce a new personal conduct policy “in the weeks ahead,” and it remains to be seen exactly how much input the union will have on that new policy.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFLPA fears that the NFL will unilaterally implement a new conduct policy without any collective bargaining – and without accounting for the union’s objecting – following the next ownership meetings, which are scheduled for December 10. While that new policy might be an improvement on the current one, the league and commissioner Roger Goodell may not concede to independent arbitration for disciplinary matters and appeals, in which case we could see more cases like Rice’s, where the disciplinary process is somewhat arbitrary.

For the NFLPA’s part, president Eric Winston says the players just want to be involved in the creation of the new conduct policy, per Pelissero.

“If they want the buy-in of the players, sit down at the table with us and bargain,” Winston said. “If not, then they’re going to unilaterally do this, they’re going to keep messing up the game and we’re going to keep talking about these things, unfortunately, instead of a big matchup on Sunday …. Every player has rights. We’re not against discipline, and we’ve never been against discipline. But that discipline needs to be carried out in the proper fashion, within the rights both sides have negotiated.”

Rice’s suspension is far from the first case in which the NFL has issued a ruling that had no precedent and didn’t match up with the rules in the current conduct policy. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is embroiled in a similar situation now, having agreed to be placed on the exempt list, believing the time served would help alleviate any additional suspension. His suspension is currently under appeal, with a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. Still, in the case of Rice, a third party (Jones) called out Goodell and the league for an “arbitrary” process, and the NFLPA is hoping the ruling draws attention to what the union sees as a disturbing pattern.

“It’s starting to become a pattern now,” Winston said. “We’re having a lot of this overreaching, lack of due process, and so now (the league says), ‘Let’s make changes. Well, we only want to make the changes we want to make.’

“I’m not happy about this,” Winston said of today’s ruling. “There’s not a winner here. The judge said we were right, but we didn’t win. There’s been way too many of these.“

Adrian Peterson Links: Friday

November 21st, 2014 at 10:32am CST by Luke Adams

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson declined the opportunity to meet with Roger Goodell and the NFL last week at a disciplinary hearing to explain his perspective on his violation of the league’s personal conduct policy, but he spoke at length to Tom Pelissero of USA Today this week. Within the interview, Peterson expresses remorse about the way he disciplined his son, promising he “won’t ever use a switch again.”

It’s fair to wonder if the running back’s penalty from the league wouldn’t have been quite so punitive if he’d made these comments to Goodell last week, though perhaps they were made in response to the league’s claim that Peterson didn’t show much remorse for the incident with his son. In any case, Peterson sounds prepared to move on from Minnesota if the Vikings decide to release him before the 2015 season, suggesting that “maybe it’s best for me to get a fresh start somewhere else.”

Here’s more on Peterson:

Considering Peterson is already preparing for the idea of playing for a new team, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com (Twitter link) wonders if the running back’s next deal could include a number of not likely to be earned incentives. NLTBE incentives are based on the previous year’s performance, and don’t count against the cap unless they’re achieved. So a team could offer Peterson a deal that includes $1MM for 1,000 yards rushing, for instance, and only have it count against the cap if he surpasses that mark.
Albert Breer of the NFL Network notes (via Twitter) that the only money the Vikings owe Peterson between next January and September is a $250K workout bonus, so the team will have plenty of time to make a decision on whether to keep him. Of course, as Corry points out (via Twitter), the team may not want to sit on his rights, considering he comes with a $15MM+ 2015 cap hit.
In the wake of the Peterson ruling, there appears to be plenty of dissent between the NFL and the Players Association. NFLPA leaders DeMaurice Smith and Eric Winston spoke to Jenny Vrentas of TheMMQB.com about the union’s frustration with the league’s handling of personal conduct policy issues, and Goodell’s arbitrary enforcement of discipline.

Latest On Adrian Peterson, NFLPA

November 15th, 2014 at 4:32pm CST by Luke Adams

The hearing for the grievance filed on behalf of Adrian Peterson by the NFL Players Association is scheduled for Monday, but the Vikings running back didn’t appear at another hearing that was supposed to happen yesterday, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.

Monday’s hearing is related to whether or not Peterson should be immediately reinstated as part of his agreement to be placed on the commissioner’s exempt list until his legal case was resolved. Yesterday’s meeting was a disciplinary hearing, intended to help the NFL decide what sort of penalty – if any – to assess for Peterson’s violations of the league’s personal conduct policy. Having initially been set for Tuesday, yesterday’s scheduled disciplinary hearing had already been moved back once by the league.

“We informed the union that we were unwilling to postpone the hearing beyond this week given that the player and union had both expressed a strong desire to resolve this matter as soon as possible and we had been given no meaningful reason why Adrian and the union could not appear and participate,” said a league official. “We offered other alternatives for this week, but those also were not acceptable. We also have yet to receive more than cursory materials in response to our requests for information on the case. Accordingly, we went forward with the review on Friday as scheduled.

“We had hoped that Adrian would take advantage of his opportunity to be heard and present whatever information he believes should be considered before a decision on discipline, counseling and services is made,” the official continued. “Because he and the NFLPA elected not to do so, we will have to address this based on the information currently available to us.”

While the NFL expressed disappointment with the apparent lack of cooperation by Peterson and the NFLPA, the running back, his lawyer Rusty Hardin, and the union don’t seem happy with league’s approach to the situation. According to Hardin, it’s against Texas state law to give the NFL all the documents it requested, and Tom Pelissero of USA Today reports that Peterson informed the league on Thursday he wouldn’t attend the hearing because the league hadn’t clearly answered questions about the role of outside experts in the process. Meanwhile, NFLPA spokesperson George Atallah said the Players Association never agreed to Friday’s meeting.

“The league office seems more focused on creating an arbitrary disciplinary process for Adrian instead of honoring a signed agreement to remove him from the commissioner’s list,” Atallah said. “They are simply making stuff up as they go along. They should commit their efforts to meeting us at the table to collectively bargain a new personal conduct policy.”

On the subject of collectively bargaining a new conduct policy, the NFLPA submitted a proposal to the league this week, making several suggestions involving discipline for personal conduct violations. As Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun outlines, the union doesn’t want to see players punished based on simply an arrest or pending charges — instead, the proposal calls for discipline to be meted out once a matter is adjudicated, with a neutral third-party – rather than the commissioner or a team – deciding on the penalty.

If the union’s proposal were applied to Peterson’s case, the running back either wouldn’t have been forced to sit out the eight games he has already missed while his case was pending, or – if he had agreed to take a take a paid voluntary leave of absence – those games would qualify as time served.

Extra Points: Vikes, NFLPA, Browns, Seahawks

October 31st, 2014 at 10:30pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Let’s look at the latest from around the league…

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer told reporters earlier today that the club had worked out three quarterbacks, and now we’ve learned their identities. Per Howard Balzer (on Twitter), Minnesota auditioned Pat Devlin, Jeff Mathews, and Brad Sorensen. None of the trio has ever been active for an NFL game. As PFR’s Luke Adams noted this afternoon, the Vikes could be looking for a replacement for practice squad QB Chandler Harnish, who is injured.
Former defensive tackle Sean Gilbert is the primary competitor to DeMaurice Smith in the race for the NFLPA’s executive director position, writes Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Gilbert, who played from 1992-2003, not only wants to expand the regular season to 18 games, but is in favor of ripping up the 2011 CBA and negotiating anew with the league. The election will be held in March.
Rookie corner K’Waun Williams has played in six games this season, starting one, and performed well, quite the feat for an undrafted free agent. Tom Reed of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer tells the story of how Browns secondary coach Jeff Hafley, who first recruited Williams to the University of Pittsburgh, pushed for Cleveland to sign the 23-year-old after the draft.
Paul Richardson could be one beneficiary of the Seahawks’ decision to trade Percy Harvin, as Jayson Jenks of the Seattle Times writes that the rookie reciever is attempting to become the deep threat for the Hawks’ offense.

NFL/NFLPA Notes: Rice, DUIs, Policies

September 26th, 2014 at 4:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The last few days haven’t been quite as explosive in terms of scandals and other major NFL stories as recent weeks have been, but the league is still dealing with the fallout of multiple embarrassing situations, and working on finalizing and creating various policies. Here are a few Friday updates on issues relating to the league and the player’s union:

Despite new details in an Associated Press report alleging that a law enforcement official sent the Ray Rice elevator video to league security chief Jeffrey Miller back in April, the league indicated today that its office “has found absolutely no evidence” suggesting it received the video or that an alleged phone call confirming its receipt took place. Nancy Armour of USA Today Sports has the details.
Player agents are being informed that their clients have until November 1 to resolve outstanding cases relating to DUI charges, in order to avoid the mandatory two-game suspension dictated by the league’s new drug policy, says Tom Pelissero of USA Today (via Twitter). Pelissero clarifies (via Twitter) that the deadline only applies to players who face chargers on alcohol-related impairment, so it wouldn’t apply to someone like Le’Veon Bell.
In a series of several tweets, Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report passes along some highlights from a memo sent by Roger Goodell and the NFL to team owners today. The memo provides progress updates on the league’s efforts to improve its personal conduct policy and handling of domestic violence situations.

NFLPA Conducting Separate Rice Investigation

September 24th, 2014 at 11:33am CST by Luke Adams

As commissioner Roger Goodell discussed at his New York press conference last Friday, the NFL has hired former FBI director Robert Mueller to lead an investigation into the handling of the Ray Rice incident and subsequent suspension(s). However, that won’t be the only investigation being conducted into the matter. The NFLPA announced today that the union has retained former federal prosecutor Richard Craig Smith to complete its own investigation into the “due process, discipline, facts and conduct” by the NFL and Ravens that resulted in Rice’s indefinite suspension.

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to the separate investigations into the situation, as well as Rice’s appeal. According to the NFLPA’s statement, Smith’s investigation will “run parallel” to Rice’s appeal, which would typically be due for a hearing soon. However, a league source tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that the NFL and NFLPA have either already agreed or will soon agree to postpone the appeal hearing beyond the September 30 deadline.

That delay on the appeal hearing should allow time for both investigations into the Rice situation to play out, and it shouldn’t have an adverse affect on the running back — even if he were to win an appeal soon, it’s extremely unlikely that he’ll be returning to an NFL field this season.

As for the NFLPA’s investigation, the union has requested the cooperation of both the NFL and the Ravens as Smith looks into the matter. Smith is part of the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, which also worked with the union on the Dolphins’ bullying scandal and on the Saints’ “bountygate,” tweets Darren Rovell of ESPN.com.

King’s Latest: Stanton, Ravens, Bowles

September 22nd, 2014 at 8:59am CST by Luke Adams

As usual, Peter King of TheMMQB.com tackles a number of topics in his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback column, and we’ll round up several of the highlights from his latest piece below. Let’s dive in….

In the wake of Drew Stanton‘s second straight victory for the Cardinals, King takes a look at how Stanton ultimately ended up in Arizona. The signal-caller signed with the Jets in 2012 expecting to be Mark Sanchez‘s backup, but when the team signed Tim Tebow, Stanton was sent to the Colts, where he began working with offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. As King writes, “Stanton loved the guy, and Arians loved him back,” which led to the Cardinals head coach bringing the quarterback with him to Arizona.
Asked by King if he pushed to have the Ravens release Ray Rice back in February, head coach John Harbaugh didn’t answer yes or no. “That is such an unfair characterization,” Harbaugh said. “It is not fair to the organization. We said all along that the facts would determine the consequences, and that was my stance from the start of this.”
Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles has emerged as a head-coaching candidate based on the job he’s doing with the team’s defense, which is missing several key pieces, says King.
King expects commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith to meet early this week – likely Tuesday – to discuss the new personal conduct committee Goodell vowed on Friday to create. In King’s view, it will likely be made up of former players, current players, an owner or two, and others from the business world who have past experience constructing similarly complicated personal conduct policies.
The fact that Goodell was willing to give up decision-making power in the drug appeals process in the league’s new policy bodes well for the future relationship between the NFL and the NFLPA, according to King, who breaks down how that new policy was a win for both the league and the players.
In light of Jameis Winston‘s off-field issues at Florida State, there’s a possibility he won’t be a first-round pick when he enters the draft, writes King.

NFL To Make Changes To Personal Conduct Policy

September 19th, 2014 at 3:11pm CST by Luke Adams

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addressed reporters and fielded questions at an afternoon press conference in New York today, and vowed that the league will make changes to its personal conduct policy. According to Goodell, “nothing is off the table” when it comes to potential changes, which he expects to discuss with NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith. The league hopes to have the process completed by the Super Bowl.

Additionally, Goodell indicated that he’ll be establishing a “conduct committee” to review possible changes and implement the best possible practices. The experts hired by the NFL will also review the commissioner’s role in various processes — by suggesting that nothing’s off the table, Goodell hinted that perhaps he may cede some power when it comes to disciplinary decisions.

While Goodell pledged to be transparent as the NFL considers changes to its personal conduct guidelines and other policies, the commissioner didn’t get into many specifics regarding the Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and Greg Hardy situations after opening up the floor for questions. Goodell deferred to the appeal and legal process in those cases, declining to comment on issues such as what Rice initially told the league was on the elevator video that became public last Monday, or how TMZ got the footage with “one phone call” when the NFL couldn’t.

Goodell also said that he has not considered stepping down from his job as NFL commissioner. “I am focused on doing my job. We have work to do. That’s my focus,” Goodell said.

Substance Abuse Policy Finalized, Gordon Ban Reduced To 10 Games

September 19th, 2014 at 1:59pm CST by Luke Adams

After announcing changes to the league’s PED policy earlier this week, the NFL and NFLPA have issued a joint statement indicating the substance abuse policy has been updated as well. As part of the new policy, Josh Gordon and LaVon Brazill, who is currently playing for the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, will have their suspensions reduced to 10 games, down from a full year.

Here are the other pertinent updates to the substance abuse policy, per the press release:

Two discipline stages will be added for marijuana positives, as follows: a first violation will result in referral to the substance abuse program, as is the case today. Subsequent violations will result in a two-game fine, a four-game fine, a four-game suspension, a 10-game suspension, and one-year banishment. The new stages are the two-game fine and the 10-game suspension. In addition, the threshold for a positive marijuana test will be raised from 15 ng/ml to 35 ng/ml, reflecting recent actions taken by other testing organizations.
Discipline for DUI and related offenses will be increased. A first DUI offense, absent aggravating circumstances, will result in a two-game suspension without pay. A second offense will result in a suspension of at least eight games without pay. In either case, a more lengthy suspension may be imposed if there are aggravating circumstances.
Appeals of positive tests in both the substance abuse and performance enhancing drug programs (including HGH) will be heard by third-party arbitrators jointly selected appointed and retained by the NFL and NFLPA. Appeals will be processed more expeditiously under uniform rules and procedures.

NFL, NFLPA Announce New PED, Drug Policies

September 17th, 2014 at 10:55pm CST by Luke Adams

10:55pm: Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (on Twitter) has the breakdown of the new substance abuse policy.

A player will enter a program after one failed test and face a two game fine for a second failed test. From there it’s a four game fine for a third failed test, a four game suspension for a fourth flunked test, a ten game suspension for a fifth violation, and a one-year ban for a sixth failed test.

9:48am: The NFL and NFLPA have released a joint statement announcing changes to the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs. The press release doesn’t include details on the NFL’s new substance-abuse policy, but notes that those changes are expected to be announced soon as well, once the two sides finalize their agreement.

The new agreement on performance-enhancing drugs will allow Broncos wideout Wes Welker, Cowboys cornerback Orlando Scandrick, and Rams receiver Stedman Bailey to return to their respective teams this week. The agreement was expected to make a few more players eligible for immediate reinstatement, but those three names are the only ones mentioned in the release, so presumably other suspended players will have to wait a little longer, or serve their full suspensions. Additionally, when the substance-abuse policy changes are finalized, several more players could be reinstated.

Here are some other highlights of the new policy, per the release:

HGH testing will be fully implemented this season.
Appeals of positive tests in the performance enhancing drug programs (including HGH) will be heard by third-party arbitrators jointly selected and retained by the NFL and NFLPA.
Discipline for violations of the performance enhancing drug policy (including for HGH) will be modified.
A first violation will result in a suspension without pay of up to six games depending on the nature of the violation. Use of a diuretic or masking agent will result in a suspension without pay of two games. Use of a steroid, stimulant, HGH or other banned substance will result in a suspension without pay of four games. Evidence of an attempt to manipulate a test will result in a suspension without pay of six games.
A second violation of the steroid policy will result in a suspension without pay of 10 games.
A third violation will result in banishment for a minimum of two years.
Players who test positive for banned stimulants in the offseason will no longer be suspended. Instead, the player will be referred to the substance abuse program. Players who test positive for banned stimulants during the season will continue to be suspended without pay for four games.

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