Scorecard

GETTING TESTY OVER TESTS

Eight NFL clubs—Buffalo, Green Bay, Detroit, Seattle, St. Louis, New Orleans, Indianapolis and the Jets—have asked their players to submit to postseason drug tests. Most of the players have resisted, and some teams have meted out $1,000 fines. The owners claim that postseason testing is permitted under the existing collective bargaining agreement, which provides for mandatory preseason drug tests and specifies that "if either the club or the player requests a postseason physical examination, the club will provide such an examination and player will cooperate in such examination."

Does that last provision encompass drug testing? Dick Berthelsen, the NFL Players Association counsel, says no: There was never any "contention by management that [the postseason exam] would be a chance to test for drugs." Says St. Louis player rep Joe Bostic, who was among those fined for refusing to be tested, "The understanding was that the postseason physical would be nothing more than a routine orthopedic exam."

Jack Donlan, executive director of the management council, disagrees. "There's nothing limiting the club from doing these things," he says. "It's the same philosophy if a player has a dependency problem as if he had an orthopedic problem." As for the fines being levied, Donlan says, "We suggested they fine players who refuse. Discipline them."

Last week the NFLPA filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. Berthelsen says the union's stance is "a positive showing of solidarity on the part of the players. They are serious about their rights, and management better listen." As Berthelsen implies, testing will be a hotly debated topic as labor and management negotiators try to forge a new collective bargaining agreement to replace the one that expires after next season. One would hope any drug-testing clause they come up with is less ambiguous than the one they're now invoking.

FOXBORO FLOW

The New England Patriots' fans have a long and sorrowful history of drunkenness and violence at Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. (SCORECARD, Oct. 13, 1980 et seq.). Facing that fact—and the unhappiness of Foxboro's town fathers about rowdiness at games—the Pats' management announced before the '84 season that only low-alcohol beer would be available at the concession stands. Violence at games diminished noticeably after that, but during the season-ending 34-23 win over Cincinnati two weeks ago, regular beer as well as the low-alcohol brew again flowed from the stadium's taps, and trouble returned with it. Eighty fans were arrested, and many others were ejected from the stadium; the Pats had been averaging fewer than a dozen arrests during home games this season. The worst incident occurred after the game when a mob of fans tore down a metal goalpost and carried a section of it out of the stadium. The section came in contact with a high-power line, and five men holding the post were hospitalized with serious burns. Four of them admitted to police that they had been drinking before and during the game.

Patrick Sullivan, the Patriots' G.M., said the regular beer could be returned if unused but the low-alcohol brew could not, and "the concessions man was more worried about the bottom line." In a promise that must sound all too familiar to the people of Foxboro, he said it wouldn't happen again.

A SUPREME EFFORT TO STAY FIT
According to The Wall Street Journal, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor sometimes dons a LOOSEN UP WITH THE SUPREMES T shirt for her exercise class.

BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL