San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman jumped on Twitter after the team’s dominating victory over the Minnesota Vikings to reveal that he was tested for performance-enhancing drugs and human-growth hormones.
During the team’s 27-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday in the NFC Divisional Round — Sherman picked off a Kirk Cousins pass early in the third quarter that would set up a Tevin Coleman touchdown that helped give the 49ers a 24-10 lead and essentially put the game out of reach.
Sherman, along with the defense, held Minnesota to 147 yards of offense.
Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports provided a glimpse into how the NFL chooses players for random drug tests in a Dec. 20, 2018 piece:
“The league’s process for testing for prohibited substances is laid out in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. It’s a joint policy between the NFL and the NFL Players Association, and the testing is overseen by an independent administrator—for the past quarter-century that’s been Dr. John Lombardo. He’s paid by both the league and the union, and the two entities have the power to fire him as well.
“Players are selected randomly by a computer program each week. Names are not used in this system. Rather, every NFL player has his own unique player ID, kind of like an employee number like many of us have. Ten players from every team—drawn from the active roster, practice squad and reserve list—are selected each week. The tests are performed throughout the week, some immediately after a game and others in the middle of the practice week.”
