Doesn’t take a mathematician to know Eric Reid’s drug testing selection doesn’t add up
The numbers don't add up.
The NFL's drug testing program is supposed to be independent and random, players selected by some complicated computer algorithm only the folks at NASA can decipher. And yet, Eric Reid’s name just happened to be drawn again after Monday night’s game against the New Orleans Saints.
For those who haven’t been keeping track, and Reid most assuredly is, this is seven times he’s been tested since signing with the Carolina Panthers on Sept. 27. Two of those tests would have been part of Reid's physical before joining the Panthers. But the others have all been part of the “random” testing program, which selects 10 players each week from a team.
Eleven games, five drug tests. I wasn’t a math major, but those odds sure seem fishy. Especially when the person getting tested is suing the NFL for collusion and is, after Colin Kaepernick, the player most identified with the protests during the national anthem over racism and economic discrimination.
But, yeah, totally random.
“That has to be statistically impossible,” Reid said after the game. “I’m not a mathematician, but there’s no way that’s right.”
The NFL said it could not comment on an individual player, and instead pointed to details of the joint agreement with the NFLPA on the drug testing program.
Public attitudes toward Kaepernick and the player protests are already shifting — cue that Nike commercial! — and there will come a day when Kaepernick will be viewed as a seminal figure in U.S. race relations. Yet most NFL owners remain entrenched in their privileged bubbles and seem set on making Kaepernick and Reid pay for their audacity.
Kaepernick doesn’t have a job, the absurdity of which is more apparent with every week. How’s that “different direction” Washington took working out for you, Jay Gruden? Reid, a Pro Bowler who averaged two interceptions a year in his first five seasons, languished on the free agent market until almost a month into the season.
While Reid is playing again, signed by one of the few NFL owners who has a clue, he's reminded at every turn that he's not really welcome.
“I know I’ve done nothing wrong, so I’m not concerned that my drug tests will come back (positive),” Reid said last month. “But the system is lying, much like what I’m protesting.”
This is where the NFLPA comes in.
The league’s drug testing program is jointly administered by the NFL and the NFLPA, yet the NFLPA has been conspicuous in its silence about Reid. It supposedly looked into the possibility last month that Reid was being targeted, according to ESPN.com, but has yet to offer any kind of public support. Or, if Reid is wrong, defense of the testing process.
Which shouldn’t come as a big surprise. The NFLPA, which didn't reply to a request for comment from USA TODAY Sports, hasn’t exactly had the players’ backs in the protests.
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