Written by Jeremy Fowler at ESPN.com
Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison will meet with NFL investigators on Thursday at 11 a.m. ET over the Al-Jazeera report that linked four active players to performance-enhancing drug use, Harrison’s agent, Bill Parise, confirmed.
Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers are set to meet with the league Wednesday. Free-agent linebacker Mike Neal will meet with NFL investigators on Thursday in Chicago.
An NFLPA attorney will be present at Harrison’s interview, as well as the others, to help limit the questions to the specifics of the Al-Jazeera report, a source told ESPN’s Dan Graziano.
The NFL said it will not comment on details of its interviews with the players.
After Wednesday’s practice, Harrison said he considers the NFL’s interview a “waste of time.” He stressed that the league will come up empty in its search because there’s no truth to the allegations. Harrison said he expects attorneys from both sides to be present and predicts the interview will be brief.
“They are going to clear my name and give me the same sendoff they gave [retired quarterback] Peyton Manning,” Harrison said. “I’m going to be cleared. They are going to give me the same thing, flash, across the bulletin board, NFL, Instagram, Twitter, all that — ‘James Harrison cleared.'”
The league cleared Manning of any wrongdoing after interviewing him in the spring of 2016.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported that the date of Harrison’s interview had been moved up from Aug. 30.
Harrison originally proposed the Aug. 30 meeting in a letter the NFL Players Association sent to the league on Harrison’s behalf. In the letter, Harrison set forth conditions limiting questions to only the segment cited in the Al-Jazeera report in which he was identified.
That letter was in response to the NFL’s threat of suspensions if players didn’t schedule interviews by Aug. 25.
Harrison, 38, couldn’t help himself recently when he discussed the league dangling punishment over failing to cooperate with an investigation.
“If it leads to the hands of that crook, I mean [commissioner] Roger Goodell, he can do whatever he wants,” said Harrison, who wants to broadcast his interview for transparency on Thursday night after a preseason game with the Eagles. “That’s just the collective bargaining agreement that the players signed [in 2011].”
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