NFL to Let Dent Play on Sunday

The National Football League lifted Chicago defensive end Richard Dent’s 30-day suspension Friday for violating the league’s drug policy and ruled that he could play in the Bears’ game Sunday.

Michael Coffield, a lawyer representing the NFL, made the surprise announcement before a Cook County Circuit Court hearing scheduled on a lawsuit Dent filed in a bid to overturn his suspension.

Dent dropped his suit when the NFL agreed to allow him to play and to give him a hearing before Commissioner Pete Rozelle next week. Coffield said the hearing would be scheduled at a time convenient to both sides.

“I am very pleased . . . to say that Richard Dent will play on Sunday,” Coffield announced in court, noting that he is a Bear fan.

The ultimate decision on whether Dent will play against the Indianapolis Colts is up to the Bears, said Mitchell Pawlan, a lawyer for Dent. The Bears had planned to move Al Harris into Dent’s spot.

“Richard Dent will accompany the team to Indianapolis and will dress and will be in uniform for the game against the Colts on Sunday,” Bear spokesman Ken Valdiserri said.

But he said he didn’t know when a decision would be made on whether Dent would actually play.

Valdiserri said the team had no comment on the NFL’s action Friday.

Dent’s lawyers filed the lawsuit Thursday in an unprecedented challenge to the NFL’s two-year-old drug policy. Dent was suspended for 30 days earlier in the week by the NFL after he refused to take a urine test, a violation of the league’s drug policy.

Dent’s lawsuit sought an injunction to bar his suspension “until such time that the NFL demonstrates the validity and integrity of all of Dent’s prior (drug) tests.”

Dent’s lawyers also sought an emergency order to allow the defensive end to play Sunday.

Pawlan said the issues to be resolved are “the propriety of Richard Dent refusing to take the test” and Dent’s contention that he did not receive proper written notice of previous tests.

Dent refused to take the latest urine test, Pawlan said, “as a matter of principle, because he hasn’t been getting the notices before as to what was going on.”

Coffield disagreed, saying in an interview after the hearing, “In every case we have given the notice that we believe is the effective and right way to do it.”

But Coffield added that the NFL will make sure that written notice of test results is given in future cases.

Coffield said Dent had agreed to dismiss his lawsuit against the NFL when the league agreed to grant him a hearing.

Under the agreement, “he and we have agreed to abide by the commissioner’s ruling,” Coffield said.