NFLPA’s George Atallah says NFL overreaching authority once again

The NFLPA’s George Atallah joined guest host Ross Tucker to explain why they have an issue with the NFL writing a letter demanding players named in an Al Jazeera report on PEDs interview with them about the charges. Here are some of Atallah’s comments:

— “Certainly we were a little taken aback with the tone of that letter. Certainly there are areas that we can choose to disagree with the League. We have a lot of respect the game, our players have a lot of respect for what they do as professionals. But I think that letter in particular crossed the line of what is professional conduct as it relates to dealing with your players.

— “We’ve always taken the position that the NFL needs to step up and provide any evidence that they have beyond just a report that has now been recanted or was immediately recanted, and they haven’t done that yet. So for them to make a mountain out of this molehill is unfortunate and it’s disappointing but ultimately it’s our job to represent our players and that’s what we’ll do.”

— “If the players decide to move forward the union will be there. If they decide to not sit down for the interview the union will be there for him as well. Like everything else, in any other situation that we’ve gone through over the last six or seven years. These are your rights, these are the decisions that you have to choose from, these are the consequences and risks from each decision. Again, we’ve talked about the rights. We don’t believe that the league has a right to impose the players coming in for an interview based on nothing. That is clear. We certainly don’t think they have any right to impose discipline based on what’s out there. There is nothing out there. But obviously the risks to, and the consequences to them denying that, if you take the league at their word, is that they’ll be suspended indefinitely and miss games. Which will obviously lead to another fight of some sort down the road. We don’t want to be in that position. I certainly hope the league doesn’t want to be in that position. It’s disappointing that we’re on the eve of another great NFL season and the headlines are not about what’s happening on the field, but what’s happening off the field.”

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