James Harrison Steelers, PED tests

Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison, who doubts how random his NFL-administered PED tests this year are, warms up before an NFL game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016. ( AP Photo/Jared Wickerham)

(Jared Wickerham)

PITTSBURGH -- James Harrison doesn't entirely believe the pieces of paper that keep appearing on his locker. 

They inform him he has a drug test due that day, to be completed as soon as possible, having been scheduled at random.  The Pittsburgh Steelers' outside linebacker has taken six or seven this calendar year, he said.  The sixth or seventh was Thursday. 

Harrison, 38, spent much of this past offseason refusing NFL requests for an interview into his alleged use of performance-enhancing substances reported in an Al Jazeera investigation.  The allegations were recanted by the lone source in Harrison's segment of the piece and he and the NFL Players Association argued the league lacked "sufficient credible evidence" to warrant an interview. 

The NFL threatened to suspend Harrison indefinitely on Aug. 15 if he did not agree to an interview.  He agreed to one three days later and on Aug. 25 he and NFLPA attorneys met with the league investigators at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. 

Harrison was publicly cleared on Aug. 31. 

He said he's experiencing a higher than usual rate of testing this year. 

"No, I think it's just random," Harrison said, when asked if he thought the repeated testing was related to the offseason controversy. " I mean it's random, right?  It's supposed to be random, so it's random, right? 

"I just wish I had that much luck with the lottery.  That's all." 

The NFL tests 10 players on each team in every week of the pre- and regular season, per the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances.  Players are selected via a computer program used by the league and players association-chosen independent administrator, according to the policy. 

Timelining Harrison's offseason-preseason fight with the NFL

Each player in the league has to be tested at least once a league year, according to the the policy, and can only be tested six times in the offseason. 

There is no set limit to how many times a player can be randomly selected for testing during the season. 

Harrison said he's known players who have been tested as many as eight weeks in a row, but that he also knows teammates who haven't been randomly selected for testing at all this season. 

All active roster, practice squad and reserve players are subject to random testing. 

Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey said he's taken two offseason tests, four in-season and an human growth hormone test this year.  He typically gets extra tests when he's coming back from injury. 

Pouncey missed all of last season with a broken fibula, all but one game of the 2013 campaign and had his 2010 season ended by an ankle injury in the AFC Championship. 

"Whenever you come back they're like 'Oh, let's test him, see if he's on anything,'" Pouncey said. " You can look at me and tell I'm not on anything.  I wish, man.  If I was that genetically gifted, pshaw, it'd be a hell of a ride." 

Pouncey is the team's secondary NFLPA rep behind Ramon Foster, who said there is no maximum on how much a player can be tested. 

He's been tested twice this season, he said.  Foster said that Harrison is clean, but has to prove it more often than he does. 

Harrison himself said he doesn't have a problem with the process or a suggestion for changing it, though he called it funny. 

Said Harrison: "I'm starting to think it's not as random."