James Harrison is tired of getting drug tested by the NFL.
The Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker was randomly tested for the second time since announcing his return to the game in February. Harrison wasn’t thrilled that he was tested again on Tuesday and tried to make the process transparent by recording the interaction with the tester. Harrison had previously recorded his last test and posted it to his personal Instagram, which ended up getting the tester fired. This time, the 38-year-old was outright told he couldn’t record. Harrison was told if he recorded, the league would automatically qualify his test as positive.
“I was told that I can’t record it and if I did try to record it, they wouldn’t test me,” Harrison said in an Instagram post. “And if they wouldn’t test me they would count (the test) as positive.”
Since I heard they fired the last guy who let me record the test, I didn’t record it. I’m not trying to get anyone fired who’s just doing their job. A video posted by James Harrison (@jhharrison92) on May 17, 2016 at 7:05pm PDT
Harrison said he contacted with his NFLPA representative, who put him in contact with the unions PED lawyer to try to resolve the situation.
It’s an interesting case. Harrison is trying to be transparent himself in recording his test videos, but clearly that irks the NFL to the point where they’re worried about the process coming to public light. It will be fascinating to see what results Harrison’s efforts in allowing recorded PED tests will yield.
