Let’s face it, the two week break between the NFL
championship games and the Super Bowl is a complete waste of time. Nothing interesting has happened at Media Day
since MTV sent Downtown Julie Brown to cover the event wearing a
miniskirt. The fear of providing
bulletin board material reduces even a player like Richard Sherman to
platitudes like “both teams are real competitors.”
So the media leaped to attention when Seattle Seahawks coach
Pete Carroll responded to a question from a reporter by opining that the NFL
should look into the use of medical marijuana in treating player concussions.
The problem here is not the message but the messenger. Washington, home of the Seattle Seahawks, is
one of two states in the country to legalize recreational marijuana use (the
other is Colorado, home of the Denver Broncos; coincidence?), and Pete Carroll’s
team has (allegedly) lost more notable players to suspensions over marijuana
use than any other team. So naturally he
is going to endorse any policy that would undermine the league’s potential
penalties against his players’ off field drug usage. He is, after all, often described as a
players’ coach.
Roger Goodell, in full legal advice mode, has also said that
the NFL should look into anything that could improve player safety, because the
League is all about player safety. At
least it will until it turns into the National Flag Football League. But maybe Goodell should think a bit about
the ramifications of approving the use of medical marijuana to treat
concussions. The first consequence is
that the number of concussions is going to rise dramatically.
Imagine the first play of the first game of the season. The kicker kicks off, the ball tumbles
through the air and is caught by the return man, who dashes out of the end zone
and is brought down at the 25 yard line.
Immediately half the players on the field grab their heads. “Ow, my head!
My head! I’ve got a . . . a . . .
I can’t remember the word! I need
help! Who’s got a joint?”
The incidence of players claiming to have concussions would
rise exponentially. There is a
precedent, namely the uptick in NFL players claiming they were found in
violation of the NFL’s anti-amphetamine policy because they took Adderall to
treat ADHD. Richard Sherman was once
quoted as saying "about half" the league took Adderall, but there’s no way of
knowing how accurate he intended that statement to be; if he is right, then the
50% or so of NFL players taking Adderall would slightly exceed the 5% rate of
ADHD among adults. Of course there is no
way to be sure about anything because of the secrecy behind the league’s drug
testing policies, and the number of players who have formally asked for an
exemption to testing because of a prescription for Adderall is still low (and
undisclosed), but the NFL has acknowledged that positive tests for amphetamine
use has increased significantly in recent years.
Should we be surprised that the coach of a football team
that resides in a state where marijuana is legal, and who has had players
suspended supposedly for marijuana use, would endorse the use of medical
marijuana to treat concussions, the biggest hot button issue facing the
league? The league has a problem with
concussions; Carroll has a problem with players being suspended for getting
high. He just wants to solve both
problems by having the league undermine its drug testing policy by approving of
medical marijuana, which would make testing for recreational marijuana
impossible.
Pete Carroll is smart.
Pete Carroll is a players’ coach.
Pete Carroll is just trying to gain an edge for Pete Carroll’s team. But if he thinks the NFL is going to jump on
the medical marijuana bandwagon, then you have to ask, “What’s he been smoking?”
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