The suspicions of Eric Reid are about to be tested.
The NFL and NFL Players Association jointly have hired Dr. John Lombardo to administer the PED testing program. They have now jointly asked Dr. Lombardo to issue a report regarding the allegation the supposedly random testing of the Panthers safety isn’t.
According to Mark Maske of theWashington Post, the league and union are awaiting a report from Dr. Lombardo regarding the questions raised by Reid, who has suggested that he has been targeted for extra testing in retaliation for his pending collusion grievance.
Dr. Lombardo has administered the program for 28 years.
“Any time the integrity of the program is questioned, we want to make sure it’s airtight,” an unnamed source told Maske.
“We have no control over it and no input into who’s tested,” another unnamed source, familiar with the league’s viewpoint, told Maske. “It is completely random. There has been no issue of targeting here. We did ask Dr. Lombardo to produce a report.”
It was believed that the truth would come out only if Reid requested details regarding his testing to be disclosed, or if he filed an official grievance. It’s unclear what the report will show. A grievance would (or at least should) entail retaining an outside expert to confirm that the relevant digital footprints show that the algorithm that randomly selected 10 players per team per week for testing was not corrupted.
Anything less than an independent validation of the randomness of the testing would not completely remove the cloud of suspicion that Reid has created, and that others like Panthers coach Ron Rivera have bolstered.