Arbitrator Rules for NFL Players

An arbitrator ruled that nearly 200 National Football League players were improperly fined last January for refusing to submit to drug tests as part of their postseason physical exams after the 1985 season.

Arbitrator Sam Kagel, in a 34-page decision, concluded late Thursday that the clubs’ actions were not permitted under the 1982 collective bargaining agreement and ordered that the fines of $1,000 per player be returned to the players within 30 days.

Kagel found the New York Jets, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts guilty of improperly fining their players. In his ruling, Kagel said that only preseason testing and testing for reasonable cause were mentioned in the contract. There had been no discussion of postseason physicals, he said, and it could not be read into the agreement.

Said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Assn.: “I’m glad we won. But the real heroes are the 200 players who refused to allow their clubs to coerce them into doing something the collective bargaining agreement did not permit. They stood up for their rights.”

Peter Ruocco, a spokesman for the NFL Management Council, said: “We will abide by arbitrator Kagel’s decision.”

Ruocco said the clubs will continue to test as they have in the past, “in preseason and for reasonable cause,” which is permitted in the collective bargaining agreement.