Congress warns NFL players may be called to testify about HGH

The NFL and NFLPA are in hot water with the U.S. Congress over lack of progress on HGH testing. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

In a letter sent to NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, members of the United States Congress and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform warned the NFL that their players may be called to testify about human growth hormone testing.

The NFL and NFLPA agreed on August 4, 2011 to start testing for HGH. The Committee says progress toward testing has been "nonexistent" and that the league has "fallen far behind its counterparts in implementing the agreement," despite being the first professional sports league to implement testing for its players.

The letter asks NFLPA to provide documents and other information, including the NFLPA’s most recent proposal for HGH testing and information regarding any proposals exchanged between the NFL and the NFLPA during meetings, no later than Feb. 8.  Those meetings were planned for last week and it is not clear if they took place.

"We are disappointed with the NFLPA’s remarkable recalcitrance, which has prevented meaningful progress on this issue,” Representatives Darrell Issa (R-Cal.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in the letter to the NFL Players Association.  “We intend to take a more active role to determine whether the position you have taken — that HGH is not a serious concern and that the test for HGH is unreliable — is consistent with the beliefs of rank and file NFL players.”