NFL to Drug Test on Game Day

This season the NFL will begin to test for performance enhancing drugs on the day of games. The new tests will not identify recreational drug use under the collective bargaining agreement.

Adolpho Birch, the NFL's senior vice president of law and labor policy, said that tests hadn't been conducted on game days before because of the difficult logistics involved. He said that the new program "is not overly disruptive to the clubs and that respects the game-day process."

Birch did not comment on the negotiations between players and the league regarding random year round testing for human growth hormone, also known as HGH. The recently ratified CBA allowed for HGH testing but before it can begin legal matters, like the appeals process and how tests are taken, have to be negotiated.

Birch sees randomness as the key to the testing being a success. Players can be tested no more than six times during the offseason but the constant threat of a test will deter players from engaging in HGH use.