Nothing random for Eric Reid and NFL

This week’s Walk of Shame goes to the NFL for its not-so-random drug testing harassment of Carolina safety Eric Reid.
 
When Reid returned to his locker after the loss to New Orleans Monday night, he found the above notice to get tested again, his seventh time in the 11 weeks since being signed by the Panthers.
 
Reid knelt during the anthem, with Colin Kaepernick, while they both played for the 49ers. Kaepernick, as I’m sure everyone reading this knows, still doesn’t have a job in the NFL. And he probably isn’t getting one, despite being better than most of the backup quarterbacks in the league, along with some of the starters.
 
The purpose here isn’t to rehash all those arguments of the protests by the players. It is to show how disingenuous the NFL drug-testing policy is when it wants to make a point.
 
Reid wore shoes Monday with drawings that honored civil activism and the right to protest. Reid also is standing with Kaepernick in a photo on his Twitter page. They are wearing T-shirts that read: I Know My Rights.
 
So now the NFL is performing its own little protest, leaving a note for Reid to take another pee test, No. 7 in 11 weeks.
 
“That has to be statistically impossible,’’ Reid said after the game. “I’m no mathematician, but there’s no way that’s random.”
  
USA Today did the math using the Cumulative Binomial Probability Calculator. The odds for Reid being randomly selected for seven drug tests in 11 weeks is 0.138 percent. Reid might have a better chance of winning the lottery.
 
It’s obvious at this point Reid doesn’t have a substance-abuse problem of any kind. This is strictly the NFL being the big-bad bully because they don’t like him.
  
It probably has less to do with protests during the anthem and more to do with Reid’s ongoing lawsuit against the league for collusion and questionable on-field fines.
 
It would seem the NFL is adding to Reid’s case by forcing him to take endless drug tests. Frankly, it looks petty and laughable at this point.
 
Asked if the “random tests’’ would become part of his case, Reid simply smiled and said, “Duly noted.”