Can NFL players smoke weed?

For athletes in the NFL, playing football gives them a great sense of enjoyment and happiness, the adrenaline rush, the energy in the stadium, and the competitiveness amongst one another, it is nothing short of a high.

While all the above elements are enough to get one hyped up, it can also give players anxiety and make them nervous. In order to be able to cope with the high experience by playing in front of millions, players tend to get high on cannabis.

Gone are the days when smoking weed or consumption of cannabis in different forms are frowned upon. In an age where the regulations prohibiting the consumption of the drug are fast disappearing, weed has become a need in the NFL. The NFL does not propagate the consumption of the drug but it is not inclined to heavily crack down on it either.

The NFL is comfortable with its “looking the other way” approach, the league’s drug policy is pretty lenient. Right now, the collective bargain agreement between the players and the league has a rule that states that athletes who have not tested positive for any drug and are not in the substance abuse program due to a previous violation will be subjected to just one drug test per year.

The NFL is much more lenient when it comes to drug testing for cannabis in comparison to the NBA

This test is applicable for all substances, including good ol’ Mary Jane. The tests are conducted between the 20th of April and the 9th of August every year. That is a total of 5 months, so does that mean players are required to stay off the weed until the end of this period? Well, yes, but actually not.

Teams prefer to get done with their testing during training camp before the commencement of the season because it saves them time and resources. This will be the only test and the next one will be a year later. Players do have an idea about the date on which they are scheduled to be tested. As long as they do not behave recklessly and smoke close to the estimated dates, they will be good to go.

Travis Kelce, the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, told Vanity Fair on one occasion that nearly 50 to 80 percent of NFL players use cannabis.

If you just stop in the middle of July, you're fine. A lot of guys stop a week before and they still pass because everybody's working out in the heat and sweating their tail off. Nobody's really getting hit for it anymore.

Bleacher Report spoke to sources from across the league who, under the condition of anonymity, were open about the prevalent use of marijuana amongst players.

You know when the test is. Once you pass it, you can do as much as you want all year. 
a union official stated

An assistant coach went as far as to say,

If you tested the players during the season every week, we wouldn't be able to field a league. We'd have to merge with the CFL.

That just shows that cannabis is a common substance used by athletes and maybe even coaches across the league. While it is easy to link the consumption of weed to a sense of intoxication, athletes in the NFL do not do it for that. Sure, it is a benefit and is much healthier than alcohol, but it is the medical benefit that drives players toward it.

Former Dallas Cowboys Shaun Smith, who played for nearly a decade in the NFL, had stated that he used to smoke “two blunts before every game”. Bo Scaife, who played for six years in the NFL, is certain that 80% of the league smokes marijuana. Le’Veon Bell, the former Pittsburgh Steeler, confessed on the ‘Steel Here’ podcast that he used to smoke weed before games to ease himself up.

The medical benefits are immense for athletes when compared to the recreational benefits. Marijuana has been proven to help in the recovery of athletes by healing their soreness and injuries. It is viewed as a better and more natural alternative to the remedies that NFL doctors usually prescribe.

The amount of painkillers and other tablets that team doctors give the players, just to be able to get them to recover quickly, is downright harmful for the internal organs of athletes. While it helps them now, they do lead to a lot of complications down the line.

What happens if a player were to fail a test during this period? That is when it gets tricky. After a first failed test, a player will be a part of an intervention program. The NFL can decide to test him up to 10 times per month, so until and unless the player can show that they are completely clean for an extended period, this will continue. The league will also fine the player for failing multiple drug tests and can even suspend the player from one game to an entire season.

The extreme was done in the case of Randy Gregory in 2017, when he was suspended for a whole season when he failed his seventh drug test for cannabis. Josh Gordon is another example of a talented player who has had to sit out for a whole season due to testing positive.

The NFL is heading towards legalization as well, however, the league will not do it until cannabis is legal throughout the country. The league wants to be a role model and by not penalizing for it, it will stray away from those values.

For now, Roger Goodell’s approach to turn his cheek the other way is working well enough. Another notable point is that NFL execs are not tested, this test is limited to only the athletes.

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