NFL to Add Gameday Testing for Performance-Enhancing Substances Under New Collective Bargaining Agreement

NEW YORK — The NFL is adding game-day testing for performance-enhancing substances — but not recreational drugs — this season under the new collective bargaining agreement.

The league's senior VP of law and labor policy, Adolpho Birch, said Tuesday that tests weren't conducted in the past on days during which there were games "because of logistical issues involved, much more so than any philosophical issues."

Birch says the league has developed a way to test that "is not overly disruptive to the clubs and that respects the game-day process."

Birch would not say where talks between the NFL and the players' union stand — or even if they've started — about details that need to be worked out before the league can introduce random, year-round blood testing for human growth hormone.