Earlier this week, an ESPN editorial talked about PED accusations and about how player should avoid talking to the commissioner because of how the commissioner handled Deflate Gate. Now for those who do not know what Deflate Gate is: Deflate Gate came about when the New England Patriots staff purposely deflated the footballs so that their quarterback, Tom Brady, could better grip the ball in the poor weather conditions in their game against the Indianapolis Colts. During the game, a ball was intercepted and the Colts’ player who intercepted the ball believed that it was under-inflated. He took the ball to the equipment staff on their own sideline and the staff in turn brought it to league officials who determined the balls were in fact under-inflated. The league brought in an outside independent investigator to look into the incident, who determined that it was more probable than not that the balls were intentionally under-inflated and that Tom Brady knew about it. Now as a result, the New England staff members who tampered with the balls were suspended by the league and Brady was suspended for four games. Part of Brady’s suspension deals with the fact that he destroyed the phone in which there were text messages between him and the suspended Patriots’ staffers. If Brady were a part of a legal criminal investigation, what he did would be considered obstruction of justice for destroying evidence and he would face a penalty for that. So how could anyone say that he does not deserve to be suspended for some time?

However, back to the current issue at hand. Towards the end of last season, the now defunct Al-Jazeera America reported that five players had been taking drugs that were not legal in the NFL. The players named in the report are the now retired Peyton Manning, active players James Harrison, Clay Matthews, and Julius Peppers, and free agent Mike Neal. Soon after the report was released, the main subject who gave Al-Jazeera their information recanted what he had said while on camera. Now of the five, only Peyton Manning has come forward and been forth coming with the NFL and the allegations made against him. Since Peyton is a former player and is no longer a part of the union, he has represented his own best interests by clearing his name, which is what these other players should be doing. Why is it that the players are worried about these allegations, when in the collective bargaining agreement it says that they cannot be suspended by the NFL for violating the substance abuse policy unless they test positive for something that is on the banned list? Now a majority of NFL fans realize that the reporting done by Al-Jazeera America was a sham at best, done by a media organization that was trying to use shoddy journalism to gain a reputation here in America. In addition, James Harrison regularly posts videos to Instagram showing the amazing things that he does in the weight room to keep him out on the field even at age 38.

The only real people that took these allegations seriously are those fans who absolutely hate these players, and they only believe them for one reason, because their hate for those players leads them to believe that these players would rather take performance enhancing drugs than keep integrity in the NFL. Heck, James Harrison made headlines when he took his kids' participation ribbons, gave them back, and told his kids that the only instance in where they would get any recognition is if they won. How does a man with that kind of integrity decide one day that he is going to take performance enhancing drugs to stay in the league? The NFL is doing their job in investigating this report, even if it is a sham, because of the fact that if there is some truth to the allegations and they overlooked it, it would be a bad image for the NFL. So why is it that in the face of a suspension, did the players still hesitate to take these interviews? Everyone knows they're innocent, there is no reason for them to hide behind the union unless they are guilty and the longer that they spend hiding behind the union, the guiltier they look.