NFL players file grievance over painkiller use

Disturbed about allegations that teams recklessly treated players with opioids and other painkillers, the NFL players union has charged the NFL and its clubs with conspiring to violate the terms of the collective bargaining agreement governing health and safety issues.

A non-injury grievance filed by the NFL Players Association points to a federal lawsuit against the 32 teams that includes charges that the NFL and its clubs illegally stored, transported and dispensed medication and that players were plied with pain medication to stay on the playing field each year. The lawsuit “raises serious issues about whether the NFL knew about potential and ongoing criminal violations regarding prescription drugs, as well as troubling questions about the legality and medical ethics of the dispensing of painkillers by NFL medical personnel to players,” the union said.

The NFL’s handling and dispensing of pain medication has been the subject of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation and two federal lawsuits by former players.

The NFL said in a letter to the U.S. Congress last month that its team doctors were relying on guidance from the DEA over the proper handling of controlled substances.

In the grievance, the union charges that allegations contained in a federal lawsuit filed by Etopia Evans, the widow of former Baltimore Ravens player Charles Evans, “demonstrates that the NFL and its clubs, including medical and legal personnel, have conspired to continue to violate the CBA and actively conceal such violations from the players and their union, the NFLPA.”

An NFL spokesman said the league will “answer the union’s grievance under the system established by the CBA.”

The NFLPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.