Rozelle’s Drug Plan Ruled Out : Arbitrator Says It Is in Conflict With Union’s Agreement

Arbitrator Richard Kasher of Philadelphia ruled Monday that NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s plan to test all players randomly for drugs twice during the regular season conflicted with the league’s bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Assn., which expires next August.

Rozelle’s edict last July, following the cocaine-related deaths of Cleveland Browns safety Don Rogers and Maryland basketball star Len Bias, would have made the National Football League the only professional sports league to require mandatory random drug testing of all players.

But Kasher noted that the 1982 collective bargaining agreement with the players addressed the drug issue by calling for a preseason test of all players as well as individual tests when club physicians suspect a particular player of drug dependency.

“Accordingly,” Kasher wrote in his 78-page ruling, “we conclude that the part of Commissioner Rozelle’s augmented drug program, which establishes unscheduled testing, is in conflict with the specific provisions” of the contract “and is therefore superseded” by the agreement.

Rozelle’s plan had been held in abeyance for Kasher’s ruling, the second victory on the drug issue for the players’ association within a week. Last week, arbitrator Sam Kagel ruled that nearly 200 players were improperly fined $1,000 each for refusing postseason drug tests last season.

Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the players’ association, called Kasher’s decision “a victory for collective bargaining. It reaffirms the agreement we made in 1982 and says that changes in what we agreed to then cannot be made unless the union agrees to them. It confirms that the clubs cannot have Rozelle do independently what they cannot do themselves under the agreement.

“We’re not trying to protect drug users. The players recognize they have a responsibility both on the field and off. But they also have rights, and it is our obligation to protect those rights.”

Kasher upheld other elements of Rozelle’s anti-drug program, including the designation of Dr. Forest Tennant to head an educational drive within the league. The arbitrator also ruled that the NFL could conduct urinalysis tests of draft-eligible players in the annual February tryouts of college seniors, since they are not covered by the collective bargaining agreement.

The arbitrator said: “There can be no question that the commissioner . . . has broad authority . . . to establish policy and procedure and to take action which would protect the integrity of, and public confidence in, the game,” and that his drug program would have been proper if it were not for the 1982 pact with the players.

In a statement issued by the NFL, Rozelle said:

“I am gratified that the arbitrator has upheld this office’s authority to institute an augmented drug program of education, treatment and discipline. I am disappointed, however, that he has ruled against unscheduled drug testing. I am convinced that minimal unscheduled drug testing is a necessary part of any fully effective league-wide anti-drug program.”

This is the final year of the collective bargaining agreement, and drug testing has been expected to be a major issue when talks begin on a new agreement.