GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers are awaiting direction from the NFL Players Association before they talk to anyone from the league office about the Al Jazeera America report that linked the Green Bay Packers defensive stars to performance-enhancing drugs.
Both linebackers said Tuesday they're looking forward to being cleared just as Peyton Manning was on Monday, when the NFL released a statement announcing it found no credible evidence against the former Denver Broncos quarterback.
"It's bogus, but it's kind of annoying that I have to continue to deal with this," Matthews said after the Packers' first training camp practice of the year. "But the truth will come out, and everything I said when the allegations came out I still stand by, so I just try to kind of put that in the rearview mirror and focus on the season."
Peppers would only stand by his original denial from when the report surfaced in December.
"I'm just trying to focus on camp and getting ready to play games," Peppers said. "Not nonsense."
Matthews said that it was good to see Manning cleared and that he hoped the rest of the players named in the report would receive the same treatment.
"I'm just kind of waiting for the NFL to conduct its investigation, in which case the truth will come out, and it'll just be another thing I've had to deal with in my career, but there's nothing I can really do now," Matthews said. "It's kind of ridiculous. It's good to see Peyton, at least, cleared in some regards, and I hope the names will go down the list.
"But, in the meantime, I'm just obviously focusing on the start of the season, and we'll take it from that. I'm going to let the NFL and NFLPA kind of figure it out and be advised on what kind of the next step is. It's been a long, drawn-out process, but we'll see once that time comes. Like I said in the past, I have nothing to hide, so it's not an issue for me one way or the other."
