NFL commissioner Goodell to testify again

After testifying Wednesday on a hearing about NFL players’ head injuries, the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will be in Capitol Hill again next week to testify another hearing, which is about the suspension of two professional football players who wear NFL jerseys.

Goodell and DeMaurice Smith, head of the NFL players union, are among the witnesses scheduled before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee next Tuesday. The NFL has asked the full federal appeals court to hear the case suspending Minnesota Vikings Pat Williams and Kevin Williams for four games. The two, not related, sued the league in state court, arguing the NFL’s testing violated Minnesota workplace laws. Afterwards, the NFL players union also filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of the Williamses and New Orleans Saints players who were also suspended.

Although a federal judge dismissed the union’s lawsuit and several claims in the Williamses’ case in May, he still sent two claims involving Minnesota workplace laws back to state court. Then a Minnesota judge issued an injunction prohibiting the NFL from suspending the players and his decisions was approved by a federal appeals court panel last month. Btu the NFL argued that federal labor law should pre-empt state law and insisted that uniform standards are necessary for players nationwide-that is why the league asked for a hearing.