Drug Tests: Bengals Yes, Bears No

The Cincinnati Bengals, without a single refusal, submitted to voluntary drug testing Thursday, but the Chicago Bears refused a request from management that they be tested, a move that temporarily threatened the team’s exhibition game Saturday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Tight end M.L. Harris, the Bengals’ player representative, said the players had voted to permit the tests, which were administered Wednesday at the team’s training camp in Wilmington, Ohio.

Harris said the National Football League players’ union had agreed to the voluntary testing as a good-faith gesture, after having previously rejected Commissioner Pete Rozelle’s call for mandatory drug testing.

“Last month, Commissioner Rozelle proposed mandatory drug testing for all NFL teams,” Harris said. “The players’ union felt Rozelle was overstepping the bounds of his power, so the legality of his proposal is now in the hands of an arbitrator.

“But the players’ union, in a move of good faith, agreed to have this firm come in and conduct this testing. It’s a one-time deal,” Harris said.

At Platteville, Wis., meanwhile, where the Bears are training, a team spokesman said the club had sought to conduct a routine urinalysis Thursday before practice. NFL rules call for one drug test during the exhibition season and two tests during the regular season.

But the players rejected the tests, saying that a test conducted in May during the team’s mini-camp had served as a preseason test.

Bear President Mike McCaskey was prepared to suspend all players who refused the test until he and player representative Mike Singletary reached an agreement, calling for the players to be tested later.

Dee Raush, a spokeswoman for the NFL Players Assn., said that under the current plan agreed upon by the players’ union and NFL management, the Bears have the right to test players during training camp.