Football’s marijuana culture:
ESTIMATES: MARIJUANA USE IN LEAGUE IS 30-60 PERCENT
The NFL collectivebargaining agreement takes a hard line on marijuana use, but some players see pot as a way to ease pain.
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In a world where NFL training rooms are stocked with a smorgasbord of painkillers, marijuana is an appealing under-the-counter temptress.
She has much to offer: A smooth buzz that eases the pain and takes the mind to a quiet place, free of the car-wreck mayhem of Sunday afternoons.
The stereotypical cynic might envision a handful of players smoking marijuana while partying. The reality, for some, is much different: players using marijuana in seclusion to manage the pain of their violent occupation.
“These guys are not going out getting high and playing football games,” former NFL player Nate Jackson told the Orlando Sentinel, freely admitting to “using everything” during his career.
“It’s more of a recovery thing. ... When you get hurt in the NFL, they give you bottles. Injections. Pills. I always found marijuana was better for me.
Opiate painkillers made me feel sluggish, down.”
Based on anecdotal interviews over the years, pot use is anywhere from 30 to 60 percent among NFL players. Pick a number. HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel estimates that 50 to 60 percent of the league’s players use marijuana.
Former NFL linebacker Scott Fujita told Showtime’s Jim Rome he estimates 30 to 50 percent of current players smoke marijuana.
Former Atlanta Falcons running back Jamal Anderson told Bleacher Report it’s at least 60 percent, and “that’s bare minimum.”
Jackson, a former tight end with three NFL teams including the Denver Broncos, puts the number around 50 percent.
It’s illegal, of course, but players needn’t worry about getting busted by the NFL drug patrol. They are only tested once a year, the equivalent of a don’t-ask/ don’t-tell policy.
Players are tested in a window between April 20-Aug. 9 for substances of abuse that include marijuana, cocaine, oxycodone and PCP. It is administered differently than the policy for performance-enhancing drugs that include stimulants, anabolic steroids and masking agents. The performance-enhancing drug policy allows every player to be randomly tested at least once a year and as many as six times in a 12-month window.
Despite the lax circumstances, 26 players have been suspended for substance abuse (mostly marijuana) in 2015. The most severe is the 16-game suspension for Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon because he is a repeat offender.
Other notable names who already have served their suspensions include Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell (two games), New England running back LeGarrette Blount (one game) and Pittsburgh wide receiver Martavis Bryant (four games).
Among the notorious names who have escaped the marijuana wrath of the NFL is former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, in prison and convicted for the murder of Odin Lloyd. His trial provided extensive testimony about his drug use during his playing days. Even Hernandez’s lawyers identified Lloyd as Hernandez’s “bluntmaster” (dealer) in an effort to show they were friends.
The fact remains that 26 NFL players were busted for marijuana use this year. The assumption is that based on the number of players in the league (1,700) and a ballpark figure of 850 probable users, there’s a bunch more than 26. But trying to establish a definitive number is pointless.
“It’s not a big topic in our locker room,” Tampa Bay Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy told the Sentinel, echoing a party line among NFL teams. “Rules are rules.”
Even among former players, it’s hard to find a big number of players admitting to pot use.
“There are more guys out there, but there is a stigma attached,” Jackson said. “It’s evaporating a little bit.”
Society is evolving as well. There are 23 states along with the District of Columbia that allow some form of legalized marijuana.
In 2013, there were 2.4 million people age 12 or older who said they had used marijuana for the first time within the past 12 months, according to a survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services. It translates to an average of about 6,600 new users each day.
While marijuana acceptance grows and legalities are eased, the debate still rages whether allowing marijuana use among NFL players is a greater-good thing.
“There is a lot of fear — call it refer madness,” Jackson said. “But I see a cultural shift from older right-wing America making these laws and seeing it as a hooligan problem. They don’t see these guys who have dedicated their lives to this craft.”
Jackson has become an advocate for removing marijuana from the NFL list of banned substances. He contends that marijuana helps ease the effects of concussions.
Others, including Harvard psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon, have suggested that the NFL should conduct studies to see how effective marijuana could be in treating concussed brains and the potential impact on lowering the odds of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). But science refutes that, or at least has yet to provide any proof.
“I’ve heard that but that is mainly conjecture not based on fact,” said Dr. Julian Bales, who has been a neurological consultant to the NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) since 1994. “You may believe that medical marijuana may have a positive effect on the brain. We know it’s a negative effect.”
Bales, recognized as one of the industry leaders in the field of neurosurgery and the impact of brain injury on brain function, told the Sentinel that long-term marijuana use can have detrimental effects on the brain. Studies have found abnormalities in brain function and structure among long-term marijuana users.
But in life, there is always risk and reward. NFL players understand that.
“What you find on the NFL level is that maybe half the guys are using marijuana and they may have been using it since high school,” Jackson said. “They are the best at what they do. But the fact that these guys manage that incredibly violent world while using marijuana says a lot of positive things about it.
“People are coming out of darkness with it. … Don’t play by that script. Players don’t have to carry water for the NFL forever.”