Report: No New Evidence Against Matthews, Peppers

So this was apparently a waste of everyone’s time, after all. That is the NFL grandstanding about interviewing Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers and two others about drug allegations from a December Al Jazeera report.

What did the NFL’s investigators show up with? Not a goddam thing.

I am told the NFL's Peppers/Matthews/Harrison interviews have gone as expected — no new evidence or allegations have been raised.

— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) August 25, 2016

How do you think those interviews went?

“So guys, maybe you saw that report last year that connected you to a drug ring?”

“Yeah, heard about it.”

“Are you connected to a drug ring?”

“No.”

“Alright. We got nothing else. See ya later!”

What a joke. I mean, it’s the exact joke we expected — the NFL never produced any evidence. They seemed to be exclusively relying on the report, a report in which the primary source recanted his statements.

Ultimately, this was just a battle between the league, which had to get its way or else, and the player’s association, which doesn’t want players being bothered with allegations that aren’t based on any actual evidence.

Such is the world we live in, though.

The players haven’t been officially cleared yet, but we expect that to come shortly.