Stakeholders hope HGH testing system is in place in NFL this season – NFL News
Although there is a great optimism that the Human Growth Hormone (HGH) testing is going to be implemented this year, an agreement is least likely to be reached by the stakeholders before the start of this regular season in September 2012.
The situation turns out to be the same that had prevailed last year. The National Football League (NFL) kept hoping to implement the system sometime during the regular season, it never happened.
An apparent reason to the delay was some differences between the NFL office and NFL Players Association (NFLPA) over proof of accuracy of the system.
NFPLA had demanded a new study to show the testing was accurate and effective before allowing players to commit themselves to the mandatory procedure.
While the NFL accused the players’ body of applying the research reason as an impediment to timely implementation of the system, the office itself was blamed for ‘intellectual laziness’ by the Association.
The system to be implemented is the one that the World Anti-Doping Agency has in place, but NFLPA wants to check its accuracy through an independent study. On the refusal of the league office to do so, it was never put in place, and it is still in pending.
Good news this year, however, is that both sides have agreed to launch an independent study to confirm the accuracy of the system and once it is done, it should finally be in place.
It is already a part of the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and should have been in place since last year but as aforementioned the apparent differences between the two organisations have delayed it until now.
Surprisingly, there is no confirmation yet when that research is going to be launched and completed to approve the test’s accuracy level.
All sides are apparently hoping to implement it at the earliest, as the league office, just like the last year, has set this regular season as the target time for its implementation.
Buffalo Bills’ centre, Eric Wood, believes it should have been done now, and hopes it is implemented in the near future. In one of his messages on Twitter, the player wrote that it will be easy for the players to test for HGH when the system is in place.
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