Marshall lauds pain, mental health steps

The NFL and NFLPA have created a series of policies to improve the league’s pain management practices, and address the mental health treatment of active players on every team.

The new policies and practices are initiatives NFL receiver Brandon Marshall, who has spent the past decade serving as an advocate for mental health since he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in 2011 while playing for the Miami Dolphins, has been advocating for years.

Marshall even pitched similar policy changes to NFL executives, owners and coaches during the NFL owner’s meeting two years ago.

Marshall, a 13-year veteran who is 30 receptions shy of 1,000 for his career, said all the changes and policies that will be implemented before training camp opens “are a start, but not the finish line.”

“This is a call to action to take the case of our minds as serious as they do our bodies. Hopefully they don’t put the clinicians in the back of the building, next to the janitor’s closet,” said Marshall, an unrestricted free agent who intends to play a 14th season in the NFL. “We talk about how life, and the game is 80% mental, but we don’t act like that when it comes to how players are being treated?”

According to an NFLPA source, these two initiatives should not be lumped together, and the policy changes were proposed to immediately address issues that have plagued players for decades, during and after their careers are over.

In a joint statement released Monday, the two parties acknowledge they will work together to gain a better understanding of the science involved in pain management, and explore other potential treatments, which could potentially lead to marijuana being removed from the banned substance list when the next CBA deal is authored.

The NFL and NFLPA will immediately form a “Joint Pain Management Committee,” which will include medical experts appointed by both the league and the union, which will establish “uniform standards for club practices and policies regarding pain management and the use of prescription medication by NFL players.”

That committee will also do research on pain management methods, and alternative therapies.

Players have complained about the league’ encouragement of opioid use, the easy distribution of pills that could create a pill-popping habit since the culture of football has been built on getting athletes numbed up enough to play through their injuries.