NFL Drug Adviser Responds to Charges : Drug testing: West Covina employer may ask Forest Tennant to resign post in pro football.

The board of directors of Community Health Projects in West Covina is considering asking executive director, Forest S. Tennant, to resign as NFL drug adviser because of adverse publicity surrounding his association with football, a board member said Monday.

Vice President Ross Figgins said negative reports the week before the Super Bowl cast a cloud over Community Health Projects, which operates 27 medical and drug clinics in Southern California.

“We don’t want it to interfere with our mission of running health clinics,” he said. “He’s a finite resource, a qualified man.”

Figgins said consideration of Tennant’s resignation has not come from the NFL.

“As far as I know the NFL has never mentioned Dr. Tennant’s status,” Figgins said. “We are operating under the assumption that all things are normal.

“I think Commissioner (Paul) Tagliabue was put in a difficult position” when the report was aired during Super Bowl week.

Tagliabue gave Tennant less than a strong endorsement during a news conference. “That is a very choice place for rumor to exist,” Figgins said.

Almost three weeks after a highly publicized television report criticized the NFL’s drug-testing program and Tennant, Community Health Project’s board released a nine-page statement Monday answering the charges.

Tennant initially refused to comment on the report by Washington consumers affairs reporter Roberta Baskin because of a pending criminal court case involving one of Baskin’s sources, a former Community Health Projects’ employee.

Although the case has been continued to March 1, the medical company released the statement after determining such information would not prejudice the trial.

The company defended Tennant and his role as NFL drug adviser; the accuracy of the NFL’s testing; charges of racism, confidentiality and fraudulent activities with regards to the clinics, and challenged the credibility of those making such allocations.

The two-part TV report charged Tennant and the NFL with failing to follow proper procedures and violating accepted standards of drug testing. It also said three prominent white quarterbacks in the past decade tested positive for drugs but were not punished whereas many black athletes were.

The report was similar to one by Sports Illustrated last July.

Monday’s statement was not sent to Baskin and station WJLA, but after obtaining a copy, Baskin said: “There really isn’t anything here to respond to. It doesn’t challenge the facts (of her report). It was nine pages, but it wasn’t much of a response.”

The statement emphasized that Tennant’s role as NFL drug adviser is one where “he can only recommend and advise.”

When asked about the NFL’s official policy stating the adviser has control over testing and other aspects, Tennant said in an interview: “I’m basically a controller in the sense of a traffic cop. All the testing has to be under a physician’s control, so yes, I do see it.”

Regarding charges of sloppy urine collection, the statement read: “Specimens were labeled with player’s names as long as they were internal and under Dr. Tennant’s personal supervision. These specimens and all other NFL specimens since 1986 have been tested by outside testing laboratories with code numbers to protect confidentiality.”

One former clinic laboratory technician, however, said samples with names on them were not closely monitored.

“It is something that should not be left to a small clinic with virtually no security,” said Robert Tovar, who left Community Health Projects in 1987 to take another position. “The chain of custody was joke. As far as storage for the samples, anybody could walk through and pick one up, open it, put something in and walk out.”

The statement said the cover-up of three white quarterbacks alleged in Baskin’s report was “a mythical unsubstantiated charge.” The statement said at no time did the NFL or Tennant target troublemakers in the league with a positive drug result.

Tennant said he felt deceived by Baskin, who he claimed asked to interview him for a feature story on how to conquer the growing cocaine problem in Washington.

“If she had come and wanted to talk about the NFL, I wouldn’t have spoken to her,” he said.

Baskin said Monday that she did not trick Tennant. She said the station did an on-camera interview in Washington with Tennant asking about his role as NFL drug adviser before interviewing him in West Covina.

“There wasn’t any ruse to the story,” she said. “We didn’t spring anything on the NFL or him.”