HGH testing in NFL to begin 'ASAP'

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday after a meeting with congressional leaders that the league will begin testing for human growth hormone, thus becoming the first professional sports league to test its athletes for HGH.

But apparently there are some concerns among player representatives about the program, and details might need to be worked out.

The league and the union are set to have a follow-up meeting with Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) within the next 30 days. Issa is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Cummings is the top Democrat on the committee.

"I think the chairman has been very clear that testing should begin in the next two weeks or else he will expect to see us all in here again," Goodell told reporters after the meeting. "He expects to see us all in here within 30 days under any circumstance to give an update on how the process is taking place."

Goodell said the league will begin drawing blood from players within two weeks because "that was the chairman's instructions." He added: "Everybody at the table agreed to that."

But George Atallah, the NFL Players Association's assistant executive director of external affairs, said the union will agree to the testing implementation only "as soon as we have a fair and safe process in place. I think the players are committed to that and we'll do that as fast as possible."

The league and the union had agreed to HGH testing as part of its 10-year collective-bargaining agreement. The NFL wanted to begin the testing program before the regular season started, but the union questioned the reliability of testing procedures set forth by the World Anti-Doping Agency.