We all know that wings, chips, salsa and beer weren’t the only substances taken in by viewers during last week’s Super Bowl.
There were doubtless millions of Americans watching the contest while consuming marijuana, especially in Colorado and Washington State. Those aren’t just the states that are home to the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, the Super combatants, but also the two states in the union that now permit the sale of pot on a recreational basis.
While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell can’t do anything about who tokes up while watching football, he certainly has something to say about whether those who play the game can do the doobage. To this point, the answer has been no, for Goodell and for his colleagues at the NBA, NHL and at Major League Baseball, as marijuana is on the banned substance list at both the professional and college levels.
But as it appears that America is developing a more nuanced approach to recreational drug use, will athletes be permitted to join the national party?
It’s hard to envision a scenario by which Goodell, baseball’s Bud Selig, Gary Bettman of the NHL or Adam Silver, the newbie at the NBA, will give their imprimateur to letting their players smoke pot recreationally. After all, you can’t present athletes as idols, role models and heroes as they do at the major leagues and let them do something that is still illegal in 48 states and federally. That’s not good for the image. That is, until the legalization wave washes across the entire country and not just in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Northwest.
That probably won’t stop professional athletes, who have plenty of disposable income and time, from getting pot on demand. Just last week, two active NFL players, Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie and Steelers safety Ryan Clark, said they knew of current football colleagues who smoke pot. Clark and Cromartie said the NFL is ill-equipped to stop marijuana usage, given the rather lax testing procedures it employs. Former Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell called on the league to more strenuously test and punish offenders.
There may be room for compromise. Clark suggested that many players who smoke pot do so to manage the pain that comes from taking part in a violent, unforgiving game, in much the same way that patients consume it in 20 states that allow medicinal use.
The thinking seems to be that it might be better for players to smoke pot rather than develop harmful addictions to more serious painkillers like Vicodin.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll raised a few eyebrows during the walk-up to the Super Bowl by suggesting that the league investigate medical marijuana.
For his part, Goodell hedged his bets at the Super Bowl. In one breath, the commissioner acknowledged that marijuana remains illegal across the country. In another, he said that the league would see where the medical testing goes and govern itself accordingly.
Perhaps the prudent path for all leagues concerned is to ever so quietly put a halt to their testing programs or at least file the results away where they won’t hurt anyone or offend their sensibilities.