NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the league wants to test players for human growth hormone “to protect the integrity of our game.” In an interview with The Associated Press while riding with former NFL coach and TV broadcaster John Madden on the Madden Cruiser between visits Wednesday to the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Redskins training camps, Goodell called the HGH issue a key element of ongoing labor negotiations involving owners and the players' union. “It's very important. It's about the integrity of the game. It's about player health and safety,” Goodell told the AP. “It's about making sure that we're doing everything to protect our players and to protect the integrity of our game.” He later made similar comments while speaking to a group of reporters at Redskins camp. The NFL currently does not test for HGH, but its use is prohibited, and the league has suspended players and an assistant coach based on other proof that they had used the substance. The NFL has told the players' union it would like to add HGH to the list of drugs in the league's testing program. The union has opposed blood tests. “We think it's important to have HGH testing, to make sure we ensure that we can take performance-enhancing substances out of the game. Unfortunately, the only way to test for that, on any reliable basis right now, is through blood testing,” Goodell said. “And if your objective is to take it out of the game,” he added, “that's the only way to do it. ... That's why we proposed it.” Told of Goodell's comments Wednesday, the NFL Players Association replied via e-mail to the AP that it would stick to an earlier statement from director of player services development Stacy Robinson, which read in part: “The NFLPA along with the NFL has supported research to find a suitable test that will detect sustained HGH use.?
