Linebackers Matthews, Peppers, Harrison facing bans for PED silence

Talk to us. Or else. That’s the message the NFL sent Monday to linebackers Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers, James Harrison and Mike Neal, who are being investigated by the league for an alleged connection to performance-enhancing drugs.

In a letter to the NFL Players Assn., Adolpho Birch, the NFL’s senior vice president of labor policy and league affairs, warned the four players will be suspended if they don’t speak to the league by Aug. 25. The punishment would go into effect the day after the deadline.

“For those players whose interviews do not take place on or before that date, or who fail meaningfully to participate in or otherwise obstruct the interview, their actions will constitute conduct detrimental and they will be suspended, separate and apart from any possible future determination that they violated the steroid policy,” Birch wrote in the memo obtained by The Times.

The suspensions for each player would continue until he has “fully participated” in an interview with league investigators, after which Commissioner Roger Goodell would determine whether and when the ban would be lifted.

Birch wrote that since the investigation was launched in January, the league has tried at least seven times to arrange interviews with the four players, but each time the NFLPA has communicated the players’ refusal to participate.

The probe stems from a television report by Al-Jazeera featuring allegations by Charlie Sly, a former intern at an anti-aging clinic. Sly, who has since recanted his claims, referenced the use of PEDs by several athletes, among them the four linebackers.

The players’ union has long pushed back on Goodell’s authority to serve as judge and jury when it comes to punishing players. The league has had a string of recent court victories, however, that reaffirm the commissioner’s power to make those decisions as negotiated in the collective bargaining agreement.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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