With the NFL testing for performance enhancing drugs on game days, the question becomes quite simple. Is this a big deal or not?
The players used to be tested randomly, and that means (in my mind at least) that you couldn’t really dodge the testing to begin with. How could you possibly figure out exactly when a random test would be taken but then have substances in your system on game day? I don’t think you could. So, it’s just not a big deal.
From that perspective it just sounds like they need more time to get it all done so they are adding the tests on game days. However, I think there might be more to this.
Imagine that you’re a player that follows the rules and all of that. You go in for treatment on the day of the game and then you have to take a drug test. I can imagine being concerned that you might get flagged for something that isn’t really your fault. It can happen to anyone. I’m not saying it will happen, but I could understand the concern on a player’s part.
The bigger picture here is that the league is increasing how random the tests are. Since they have a very stringent program, I don’t see any reason why this would matter, in the long run, to most players. It might mess up someone’s game day routine, but I don’t think it’s really going to put a dent into anybody’s routine so bad that they can’t play the game well.
I suppose the only problems that could arise would be too many guys on a team getting tested on the same game day. That might be newsworthy. Otherwise, this isn’t really a loss for the players because they were already being tested.
I hope this doesn’t turn into a story, but I think it’s worth bringing up. With every new wrinkle, there’s always the chance that there could be problems.
