Aug 18, 2016 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – James Harrison has fought the good fight against the NFL.

The Steelers linebacker has refused to submit to an interview with the league regarding a highly questionable report he and three other players obtained performance-enhancing drugs from an Indianapolis-based anti-aging clinic.

As rock anthem after rock anthem have pointed out in song, you can fight the law but the law will always win.

Harrison, Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers and Mike Neal are in a tug-of-war with the NFL and Players Association over this issue.

The league already has cleared Peyton Manning, who also was named in the Al Jazeera America report last December. Al Jazeera is a now-defunct news gathering source.

Manning, who retired after winning the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos, had nothing to lose and everything to gain by meeting with the league’s investigators. By clearing his name, he can continue to be America’s pitch man on commercials. Even if he wasn’t cleared, the league couldn’t do anything to him. He is retired.

For Harrison and the others, the NFL’s insistence on discussing a report that had long since been debunked – the source in the report said he made the whole thing up – just isn’t a good look.

Manning, after all, was the only person to receive a shipment of human growth hormones. They were addressed to his wife, apparently for a good reason, at least good enough for the NFL.

Harrison told the NFL Network Thursday night there is no “credible evidence. Period. End of discussion.”

The irony of the interview is that the NFL Network is an NFL-owned television network reporting on a fight between the league and the NFLPA.

Because of that, the players were told by NFLPA lawyers not to submit to any interviews with the league. As Harrison said earlier this week, if someone falsely claims he is a pedophile, does that mean he should submit to interviews even if there is no proof?

Earlier this week, the league played its trump card. Either Harrison and the other players named in the report submit to an interview by Aug. 25 or they will be suspended until they do.

At that point, it became a matter of time before Harrison, Matthews and Peppers would submit. None of them, after all, want to miss playing time for something in which they apparently weren’t involved.

Harrison will have his interview Aug. 29, according to ESPN. But it won’t take place in New York. He’ll do it from Steelers headquarters.

And he only wants to discuss the Al Jazeera America report. He isn’t about to submit to open-ended questioning, which is probably a good idea given his already contentious relationship with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Remember, Harrison once told a national magazine he wouldn’t help Goodell, even if the latter were on fire.

The NFLPA remains upset that it lost the battle with the league in the Tom Brady case. And it used this issue as an attempt to draw a line in the sand.

In this case, it has largely been on the side of right. Does anyone truly believe that an anti-aging clinic would put an intern – the source of the Al Jazeera report – in charge of helping its most high-profile clients skirt the PED rules in the NFL?

And where exactly is the line drawn deciding which reports have substance and which don’t?

But, there aren’t any songs about fighting the law and coming out on the winning side.

The law always wins, especially against rebels such as Harrison.

Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.