James Harrison doesn't say if he'll speak to NFL in Al Jazeera case

The reality of the NFL’s ultimatum to the four players accused in the Al Jazeera America report on performance-enhancing drugs is that if the players don’t speak to the NFL, they’ll pay the price.

It’s their career. It’s their paycheck. Their teams will suffer without them in the lineup. It’s all well and good to take a stand out of principle, but there will be ramifications.

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, Green Bay Packers linebackers Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews and former Packers defensive linemen Mike Neal will be suspended if they don’t talk to the NFL by Aug. 25, the league said.

Harrison told reporters on Tuesday that he hasn’t decided what he’ll do.

“I’ll do what I have to do, they’ll do what they have to do. We’ll make that decision when time comes,” Harrison said, according to Chris Bradford of the Beaver County Times.

“Nobody wants to be suspended.”

That’s the problem. Even though the players could fight the NFL on principle — and it’s understandable if they feel the NFL has no right to interview them over the Al Jazeera America hidden-camera story that implicated them — they’ll still be the ones sitting out when their teams are playing football this season.

Harrison’s agent Bill Parise told the Beaver County Times his client is part of a bigger fight.

“I think the NFL is trying to bully the NFLPA and the NFLPA is trying to bully the NFL and everyone’s pushing,” said Parise. “It’s two bulls in the pasture pushing each other.”

There’s clearly more at stake than just the playing status of the four players. The union wasn’t happy with the way NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s wielded his power in Tom Brady’s deflate-gate case, and this seems like the sequel. The league has very little evidence to suspend the players for, or even interview them.

“I think at some point someone has to understand that there are players involved, players livelihoods involved,” Parise said. “If they’re suspended, they don’t get paid. So, I think at some point, cooler heads ought to prevail. There should be some middle ground that can reached.

“I don’t know what that is. That’s my opinion, not the opinion of James Harrison, not the opinion of the NFLPA. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.”

The story is fascinating. The NFLPA, from the time it sent an affidavit on the players’ behalf, had to know that NFL punishment would eventually be the result. If the players take a stand and don’t talk, and the NFL follows through on its suspension threat, whatever follows will become a huge story in NFL circles.