(SportsNetwork.com) – The NFL Players Association thinks Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano leaked confidential information about former Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman’s inclusion in the NFL’s substance-abuse program, according to a report.<\/p>\n
The union wants the league to participate in a joint investigation of Schiano so it can question him, USA Today reported Sunday, citing a correspondence it had obtained.<\/p>\n
Previously, NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith said the union would investigate if the Buccaneers leaked information about the quarterback.<\/p>\n
The union says it doesn’t have confidence in the league’s separate probe partly because it is unaware of any previous NFL investigation into such a confidentiality breach that has yielded discipline, according to the report.<\/p>\n
After ESPN reported the quarterback’s inclusion in the drug program, Freeman said in a statement he never tested positive for an illegal drug but takes ADHD medication and said he accidentally took Ritalin instead of Adderall last year, which triggered a positive test.<\/p>\n
As a result, he was placed in Stage 1 of the NFL’s substance-abuse program and submitted to frequent drug tests.<\/p>\n
Freeman was released by the Buccaneers after being benched by Schiano and now plays for the Minnesota Vikings.<\/p>\n
Schiano was asked by reporters if he was the source of the leak and replied, “absolutely not.”<\/p>\n
The NFLPA says it has information Schiano discussed Freeman’s inclusion in the drug program with other Buccaneers players, according to USA Today.<\/p>\n
An NFL spokesman told the paper the league takes the confidentiality provision of the drug policy “as seriously as the union and will vigorously pursue any leads the union provides.”<\/p>\n
“However, such information should be shared confidentially with our office rather than inappropriately leaked to the media before the investigation has been concluded,” spokesman Brian McCarthy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(SportsNetwork.com) – The NFL Players Association thinks Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano leaked confidential information about former Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman’s inclusion in the NFL’s substance-abuse program, according to a report. The union wants the league to participate in a joint investigation of Schiano so it can question him, USA Today reported Sunday, citing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68,72,71,67,66,73],"class_list":["post-6277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl","tag-buccaneers","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-vikings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}