Julius Peppers & Clay Matthews
Green Bay Packers linebackers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers, along with Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison have been cleared of any wrongdoing by the NFL.
The NFL released a statement Wednesday afternoon:
The NFL found no credible evidence that Pittsburgh’s James Harrison and Green Bay’s Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers were provided with or used substances prohibited under the NFL-NFLPA Policy on Performance-Enhancing Substances following a comprehensive investigation into allegations made in a documentary by Al-Jazeera America.
All three players took part in interviews last week at their team facilities.
The NFL Players Association fought to prevent the interviews from happening, but the NFL insisted that its investigators meet with each player individually.
Both sides drew their lines in the sand, but the NFL said it needed to speak to the players in person and set an August 26 deadline for those interviews to occur.
The NFL has now cleared four of the five football players named in the Al Jazeera report. Earlier, they cleared retired Denver quarterback Peyton Manning. The only player that hasn’t been cleared is former Packers linebacker Mike Neal.