Holy shit are we getting tired of this dance.
The NFL promised to show up on the first day of training camp to interview Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers about some since-recanted drug allegations they are investigating. They did not. We have been led to believe the NFLPA has blocked those interviews.
Both Matthews and Peppers have stated their innocence in the matter, but are clearly sticking with their union at this point. As they should.
The NFL has produced no evidence of any wrongdoing. Their investigation appears to be entirely based on a report that now appears to be questionable at best.
Well, enter some holier-than-thou members of the Green Bay Packers organization!
They’re gonna make things right!
And by right, we mean pressuring Matthews and Peppers to submit to the league’s interviews so as not to tarnish the Green Bay Packers image.
This comes from PFT.
Behind the scenes, however, efforts are ongoing to persuade the players to comply. In Green Bay, for example, a league source tells PFT that some pressure is being applied by the Packers to linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers to submit to the requested interviews.
There’s not much the team can do other than appeal to their desire to be exonerated, to avoid negative P.R., to get the matter behind them, and to minimize the possibility of a potential distraction.
The NFL cleared former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, the main focus of the original report, earlier this week. They left no doubt of his innocence and made a big deal about clearing him in the process.
So if we’re to believe the focus of the report and allegations is clearly not guilty, then it would be reasonable that no one named is guilty. Both Matthews and Peppers were footnotes in the original report. They were allegedly tied to a “drug ring.”
And that’s pretty much all there was.
The NFL should drop it. The Packers organization should stay the hell out of it.
Enough of this shit, already. There’s football to be played.