Goodell asks Congress for help on anti-doping

AP - By FREDERIC J. FROMMER and HOWARD FENDRICH

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Arguing that sports leagues' drug programs could be "gutted" if not protected from individual states' laws, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell asked Congress on Tuesday to intervene with legislation and found at least one powerful ally.

Rep. Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said during a hearing Tuesday that recent court decisions essentially blocking doping-related suspensions of two Minnesota Vikings players "could render the NFL and Major League Baseball drug testing programs unenforceable, loophole-ridden, and unacceptably weak and ineffective."

Yet Goodell also heard this, less-supportive, message from another lawmaker: Be careful what you wish for.

"You don't want to have 435 members of Congress writing a law that would have in any way some immediate conduct and effect on your players," Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., told Goodell at the end of the subcommittee session he chaired Tuesday.

Waving his hands as if to ward off the effort, Rush said, "You don't want us to get involved in this. You can't tell what members of Congress will ultimately do once you open up this Pandora's Box."

Rush urged the league and its players union to try to work out a solution.

Goodell wants to change federal law to protect sports leagues' collectively bargained steroid policies from state law challenges; DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, prefers to resolve the issue during labor talks.

The House subcommittee also heard from executives from Major League Baseball -- supporting the NFL's contention that legislation could help -- and the baseball's players union, backing its football counterpart in saying legislation is unnecessary.

Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said his organization supports legislation to protect professional sports leagues' anti-doping programs "against interference from inconsistent state laws."

Waxman, who has held high-profile hearings on steroids in sports, said that if the court rulings are not reversed, "then we need to find out if the collective bargaining process can solve these problems or whether congressional action is needed.

"One thing is clear: We should not allow the drug policies that the NFL, Major League Baseball, and other sports leagues have put in place to be rendered null and void. That is an invitation to steroid abuse in professional sports. And it will inevitably lead to more steroid use on high school football fields and baseball diamonds."