Patriots Reportedly Agree to Be Tested for Drugs, TV Says

New England Patriot Coach Raymond Berry Monday said an unspecified team problem had become “intolerable” and was being dealt with by the players, who reportedly have agreed to become the first team in the NFL to undergo drug testing.

Berry said he learned of the situation several weeks ago, but it had not been made public “because as soon as this issue became an issue, it would dominate all others. It was just intolerable to have happening.”

No player would define what the problem is, although guard Ron Wooten said “it was too sensitive an issue between player and management for Brian (Holloway, the team’s player representative) to handle.”

Berry, when asked if the players had discussed urinalysis testing to detect drug use, refused to comment.

But all three network-affiliated television stations in Boston Monday reported that during a morning meeting that included the players’ wives, the players agreed to undergo urinalysis next year.

If the players agreed to submit to the testing, the team would be the first in the NFL to do so.

Wooten, one of the team’s assistant player representatives, addressed the team at a meeting Monday morning.

“Any decision we made was made as a distinct unit of players and not as a collective bargaining force,” he said.

Said rookie Jim Bowman: “Everybody on the team was aware of the problem, and I didn’t think it was that serious, but something has to be done about it.”

Berry said that a reporter from the Boston Globe learned of the problem but withheld publication until after the Patriots’ season ended.

“He came to me and helped me by keeping it out of the paper,” Berry said, refusing to comment until the article appeared in today’s editions of the paper.

“I’d like the whole thing to come out, it should be made public,” Berry said as the team prepared to return to Boston. “A lot of good things have happened, a lot of positive things.

“Our players will deal with it, like I knew they would. It’s a situation I couldn’t handle any other way but by sitting and waiting.”