The Associated Press reported Monday that two congressmen sent a letter to NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith scolding the union for standing in the way of HGH testing in the NFL.

The letter sent by Republican Darrell Issa and Democrat Elijah Cummings asked Smith to provide documents on the HGH negotiations with the NFL. Last year’s collective bargaining agreement was supposed to pave the way for HGH testing.

“We are disappointed with the NFLPA’s remarkable recalcitrance, which has prevented meaningful progress on this issue,” the letter said. “We intend to take a more active role to determine whether the position you have taken — that HGH is not a serious concern and that the test for HGH is unreliable — is consistent with the beliefs of rank and file NFL players.”

The congressmen said the NFL has fallen behind the other sports leagues in HGH testing now that Major League Baseball is on the verge of starting it and the NBA has agreed to a plan. They alluded to the need for congressional hearings should the alleged stonewalling continue.

The letter added: “The Players Association’s resistance to implementing an HGH test has led us to question whether the NFLPA leaders actually believe that HGH is a problem in the sport. For that reason, we intend to pursue a fact-finding agenda to determine whether NFL players consider HGH a problem in the league.”

– Bill Bradley, contributing editor