NFL, NFLPA await independent report on Eric Reid's drug test allegations

Eric Reid spent much of the first half of this season without an NFL job, which was the result, he claimed, of kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality.

Reid filed a collusion grievance against the NFL, saying that he’d been unfairly denied employment. The Carolina Panthers picked Reid up for the season’s final 11 games, but then a new wrinkle emerged: Reid began getting drug-tested again, and again, and again — by his count, seven times in 11 weeks.

That seemed to be a bit much for a “random” test for Reid, and now both the NFL and the NFL Players Association have requested that an independent administrator review Reid’s claims. John Lombardo, who has overseen the league’s drug testing program for 28 years, is preparing a report on Reid’s situation, though there is no timetable for its release, according to the Washington Post.

Lombardo is an independent authority, and both the players association and the NFL have the power to dismiss him. He’s looking into whether Reid has been targeted, and whether he has been tested as much as he says he has; all testing provisions, including whether tests take place at all, are confidential.

NFL has two separate drug tests

As the Post notes, the NFL has two separate drug-testing provisions, one for substance abuse and one for performance-enhancing drugs. Each player is subject to one mandatory test each year under each policy, and then 10 players are chosen at random each week during every week of the NFL preseason, regular season, and playoffs for performance-enhancing drug tests.

“I guess there was something about some mathematician saying it’s highly improbable, but definitely possible,” Panthers head coach Ron Rivera said last week. “But I’ll say this, if my name came up that many times I’d buy a lottery ticket.”

Of course, it’s worth noting that, as Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson pointed out, “considering the NFLPA helped to collectively bargain these current testing procedures … it doesn’t have the motivation to chase down the process. And unless the players push the issue with the union, nothing is likely to change.”

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

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