Now, NFL Denies It Knew of Patriots’ Drug Problem

The National Football League’s director of communications said Thursday that a communications breakdown led another NFL executive to the mistaken belief that the league knew of the New England Patriots’ drug problem before the team’s 46-10 loss to the Chicago Bears in last Sunday’s Super Bowl game.

“We were aware of it for some time,” Don Weiss, the league’s executive director, told The Times in a phone interview Wednesday night. That and other Weiss comments appeared in a Times story that ran in most Thursday editions.

Joe Browne, NFL director of communications, who was reached Thursday night in Honolulu, where he is helping supervise media preparations for Sunday’s Pro Bowl, said Weiss was mistaken. Browne said the league did not find out about the New England drug problem until after Coach Raymond Berry met with his players in New Orleans Monday and asked them to approve a voluntary testing program, which they did.

“We had a communications breakdown between two members of our office,” Browne said. “One was Don Weiss, and the other was Charlie Jackson, our assistant security director.

“Weiss had been briefed by Jackson (on the New England problem) following the team meeting Monday in New Orleans. He (Weiss) assumed from the briefing that the league had been aware of the problem when, in fact, we did not learn about it until Monday, like everyone else.

“The truth is that we’re disappointed in that Raymond Berry did not notify us earlier. Under league procedure, he definitely should have. The league expects to be notified whenever there is an incident of the nature that occured in Miami.”

Browne alluded to a party at which some New England players allegedly used drugs following the team’s regular-season loss to the Miami Dolphins. Browne said that if Berry was later aware of the party, which the coach has said he was, then he was obligated to inform the league. The league then would have asked its security department to investigate.

Browne said the league is now reviewing the entire episode but will not be prepared to comment until after the Pro Bowl.

He also said that NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, as part of an ongoing process, talked via telephone Tuesday with Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Assn., regarding an attempt to reach accord on a drug policy before negotiations begin on a new collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement expires in August 1987.