After Settling with NFL, Anthem Protester Already Attacking League Again
Well, that didn’t take very long.
Barely a month after settling his collusion grievance against the NFL along with former teammate Colin Kaepernick, Eric Reid is back to lambasting the league for what he claims is unfair treatment.
Reid, the presumptive starting safety for the Carolina Panthers this year, already has started whining about another random drug test.
The issue for Reid, and his teammates, is that they believe these random drug tests aren’t very “random.”
Number 7… ”Random” pic.twitter.com/6HkxXCZhQP
— Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) December 18, 2018
“If my name came up that many times I would buy a lottery ticket,” Carolina head coach Ron Rivera said in late December.
“I don’t think there’s any secret about it that something is wrong with that,” Panthers receiver Torrey Smith added.
As USA Today notes, Reid claims to have been drug tested seven times in the first 11 weeks of last season. (More on that later.) He says that’s a statistical impossibility.
However, the NFL and the players union have vehemently denied any sort of targeting with the drug testing program.
“We take any claim questioning the integrity of our collectively bargained performance enhancing drug policy seriously,” the league and the NFL Players Association said in a joint statement. “We asked the independent administrator of the policy to review and produce a report on the claims of targeting. A copy of this report, which contains personal and confidential testing information, has been provided to Eric Reid. We will not breach any player’s confidentiality, but can confirm that the report documents the dates he was randomly selected for testing and the actual dates of the drug tests.
“The report also demonstrates that Mr. Reid’s tests were randomly generated via computer algorithm and that his selection for testing was normal when compared with the number of tests players were randomly selected for throughout the league during the time that he was on an active roster.
“There is no evidence of targeting or any other impropriety with respect to his selection for testing.”
Now, after taking another drug test, Reid is attacking the NFL again just 12 days after the league year started March 13 with a sarcastic social media post again questioning the randomness of these drug tests.
In honor of my first “random” drug test of the year. Shoutout to my trainer ?? pic.twitter.com/sqiMaVE5cx
— Eric Reid (@E_Reid35) March 25, 2019
Reid’s griping about these drug tests is beginning to feel a little petulant. If he’s as clean as he says he is, submitting a urine or hair sample every week is a minor inconvenience at worst.
Besides, it’s not like this drug testing has affected his bottom line, considering he quadrupled his previous salary with the Panthers when he signed a three-year deal worth over $22 million in February.
It’s not clear what exactly Reid is trying to accomplish with his incessant whining other than to get out of random drug testing. But again, if he’s as clean as he says he is, what’s the problem here?
His claims about the frequency of testing he’s faced also have been questioned. The Washington Post’s Mark Maske quoted a source as saying Reid exaggerated when he said he was tested seven times in 11 weeks.
According to one source familiar with the report delivered to the NFL and NFLPA on Eric Reid’s drug testing, that report says that Reid was not tested as many times as Reid asserted publicly.
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) January 9, 2019
Perhaps if Reid spent a little less time complaining and kneeling for the national anthem and focused more on football, he could help the Panthers finish better than 15th in total defense and make the playoffs this season.
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