BusinessTN

Over the past several years, America's pastime of baseball has been plagued by headline-grabbing allegations and evidence of rampant steroid and performance-enhancing drug use by its Major League players.

The National Football League, by comparison, has received kudos for its proactive and aggressive efforts to regulate steroid use among its players—though reasonable questions about league policies persist.

Congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, once stated at a congressional hearing reported on by The Washington Post that drug-testing experts "have long hailed football's testing program as the top of the heap in professional sports. It's a policy with tough penalties that are getting tougher all the time. But it's not perfect."

Few Tennesseans are probably aware that a native of the Volunteer State is the person in charge of drug testing and policy for America's most popular professional sport. Some media outlets have referred to Nashville native Adolpho Birch as the NFL's "drug czar." Birch, whose official title is NFL vice president of law and labor policy, replies, "I get a lot of those sorts of labels."

Birch joined the NFL league office in 1997. The NFL initiated its steroid and drug policy in the late 1980s.

"Before any of this came into the public light, before there was any media attention, before any one else was outraged, we put a policy in place," says the 40-year-old Birch. "And it was primarily because the league and the player's union got together and understood that for player health and safety, for competitive integrity, and for the understanding and acceptance of the players' obligation as role models, we needed to have a policy."

Birch is confident that as a result of the NFL's two-decades of vigilance, the general public is in no danger of turning on ESPN one day to discover breaking news that a whole generation of players used performance-enhancing drugs, a revelation that would—as it has in baseball—erode the integrity and historical veracity of a fan-cherished sport.

"What you have to understand is that the presence of a policy does not prevent people from attempting to use a steroid or performance-enhancing substance. What it does is this—it's sort of like a speed limit. What you hope is that the consequences of use greatly outweigh the benefits," Birch explains. "We have people that are suspended every single year—some people because they intentionally tried to take something, some because they were negligent in reviewing what it was they were taking. But no, I don't think there is any tip of the iceberg or people who are skipping under our policy just based on the nature and the amount of testing we do."

Birch bristles when asked about so-called "loopholes" in NFL drug policy, such as one recently written about by The New York Times regarding the league's decision not to test players on game days, in part due to the physical exertion players pour into Sunday performances.

"I don't subscribe to that theory," Birch replies. "Our testing is comprehensive in a number of things we do to take everything into consideration with respect to the logistics of it. For example, we use much lower thresholds than the Olympics and other groups for positives for stimulants and other things that would be a game day use type of thing. Part of the reason is so we catch that lower level if someone used it the day of the game. Everything people seem to point at as loopholes generally are just functions of either the policies or the science behind it."

And how does he respond to other critics who say the league should do a more credible job of outsourcing rather than self-policing their players, as is the case with the Olympics?

"Simply on steroids, not even counting the drug policy, we probably do four times the number of tests that the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) does worldwide. And we're dealing with 2,000 players; they are dealing with 100-plus countries in 50 sports," Birch says. "We do a lot of testing. And we do have independent people who administer the program who are not NFL employees."

It's been a rapid ascent to the top ranks of the NFL for Birch, who currently lives and works in New York but who says he still views Tennessee as his home.

"I tell people up here all the time that I'm a Nashvillian until the day I die," he says. "There's no question about it. I merely reside up here."

The son of former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice A.A. Birch, Adolpho Birch attended F.H. Jenkins Elementary School, Father Ryan High School, where he graduated in 1984, and Harvard University where he majored in government and played on the lacrosse and basketball teams. Birch then came back to Nashville and attended law school at Vanderbilt University, after which he completed a yearlong judicial clerkship for Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Judge Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. Birch then went to work at the litigation law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston, working with the Antitrust/Complex Litigation group. He later worked at a smaller boutique law firm in Houston specializing in labor and insurance defense, and did some municipal finance work, as well as "a lot of unrelated things that ultimately were very related to what I do now even though I had no idea at the time," he says.

Birch landed with the NFL 10 years ago. Originally he was involved with the league's labor relations council dealing with the union on grievances that came up under the collective bargaining agreement with players. However, Birch also became involved with various conduct and drug policies. "Over time, it grew to where that was my principal focus," Birch says. "And now I'm sort of running them all in my new role."

That role also includes a powerful voice in player discipline for certain misconduct, a much-publicized task in recent years in light of numerous player missteps. Under first year league commissioner Roger Goodell, the league further distinguished itself for strenuous discipline in 2007.

"When Roger came in as commissioner, he undertook a series of steps to strengthen our approach in a number of areas related to conduct in particular," says Birch, who worked for years in the league office with Goodell before his ascension to commissioner last year. "I am very pleased with how that approach has been received not only by the public but our players. It reflects well on what the values of the NFL are all about and makes sure we get back to those values. It shows we want the product we put out on the field to be something we're proud of and understand that the types of incidents that were occurring, while not the product of many players, was having a very big impact."

Birch has now passed a decade in the league office. What does he foresee in his future?

"I don't know. That aspect I take as it comes," he says. "I love working here at the league. I don't have any thoughts about doing anything else. The league is on great footing. It is America's passion, as we like to say. I don't envision myself not connected to football."

Given the likelihood of ongoing drug policy development and enforcement, as well as other labor relations issues facing "America's passion," Birch will no doubt have plenty of work to conduct as long as he stays with the league.