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of another season, the loud-
est call for change has come
from former stars who claim
the league has, for too long,
overlooked a therapy for not
only aching knees and shoul-
ders but also, perhaps, brain
trauma.
“Everyone knows this
game is brutal,” said Kyle
Turley, who spent eight
years on the offensive line.
“Cannabis saved my life, pe-
riod, and it could help a lot of
other players.”
::
NFL executives joined
with the players union in
May to announce a series of
initiatives aimed at athletes’
well-being.
Each team must now re-
tain a behavioral health cli-
nician to be available for
players at the training facil-
ity at least eight hours a
week. Goodell said: “We’ve
long been focused on mental
health but this, I think, takes
it to another level.”
League and union lead-
ers also created a joint com-
mittee to study issues involv-
ing therapy for injuries.
Teams have been told to des-
ignate a pain management
specialist and monitor all
drugs — including opioids —
prescribed to players.
The decision to include
cannabis in a study of medi-
cal alternatives generated
the biggest headlines.
A Gallup poll last fall
found that 66% of respond-
ents supported legalization.
Eleven states already allow
for recreational marijuana,
with 33 permitting medical
use. But the NFL’s chief
medical officer made it clear
the league will not be swayed
by public sentiment. “I think
that the science, unfortu-
nately, has lagged behind a
lot of the popular opinion
and press on this,” Allen Sills
said. “We have a lot more
opinion than we do science
on the use of marijuana for
pain.”
Cannabis remains a
Schedule I drug on the fed-
eral level, defined as a sub-
stance with no currently ac-
cepted medical use and a
high potential for abuse.
This designation places
significant restrictions on
researchers, who are limited
to studying a relatively nar-
row range of cannabis prod-
ucts supplied by govern-
ment-approved growers.
A 2017 study by the Na-
tional Academies of Scien-
ces, Engineering and Medi-
cine stated that “conclusive
evidence regarding the
short- and long-term health
effects — both harms and
benefits — of cannabis use
remains elusive.” The same
goes for Cannabidiol, or
CBD, which has no psycho-
active effects.
“It’s complicated,” said
Dr. Donald Abrams, a pro-
fessor at UC San Francisco.
“But if players are thinking
that cannabis would be use-
ful for pain, there is some evi-
dence to support that.”
Initial studies aren’t the
only reason that Abrams
and others in the medical
community are optimistic
about the medicinal value of
cannabis. At UC San Diego,
Dr. Mark Wallace has seenpositive results in treating
his patients. He believes
that athletes using cannabis
directly after an injury might
avoid chronic pain later in
life. He adds, “It’s an alterna-
tive to opioids, and we know
what opioids have done to
this country.”
In 2016, ESPN the Maga-
zine conducted a poll of 226
NFL players to gauge their
opinion on the matter.
Nearly 60% said they wor-
ried about the long-term ef-
fects of painkillers. Not sur-
prisingly, 61% said fewer
players would take such
drugs if marijuana were an
allowed substance.
But the greatest poten-
tial for football extends be-
yond pain management. In
Israel, a global leader in can-
nabis research, tests on
laboratory animals have
shown cannabinoids might
act as a neuroprotectant,
decreasing brain inflamma-
tion in response to injury.
If so, it could be used to
treat concussions andchronic traumatic encepha-
lopathy (CTE), which have
plagued the game.
“Here you have a drug
that affects a system of re-
ceptors that is spread
throughout the nervous sys-
tem,” Wallace said. “We don’t
have many drugs like that.”
As the science continues
to advance, albeit at a re-
stricted pace, former players
are voicing their support.
Hall of Fame quarter-
back Joe Montana has in-
vested in a cannabis firm.
Chris Long, who played de-
fensive end for the Rams,
has spoken openly about us-
ing marijuana during his 11-
year career. Other past
stars, such as Terrell Davis
and Rob Gronkowski, have
become involved with com-
panies that sell CBD-based
products. “It would have
made a huge difference in
my pain management dur-
ing my career,” Gronkowski
said on a company website
after retiring from the New
England Patriots in March.Turley’s advocacy arose
from a struggle he faced af-
ter leaving the game in 2007.
Reduced to walking with a
cane, facing bouts of depres-
sion and rage, he tried can-
nabis and saw rapid im-
provement. He eventually
became involved in selling
CBD supplements. “It’s not
like some magic potion that
hippies in Northern Califor-
nia conjured up,” he said.
“The NFL could run one
study in training camp and
change everything.”::
Announcing his surprise
retirement last month, Indi-
anapolis Colts quarterback
Andrew Luck talked about
the game’s physical toll.
“For the last four years or
so, I’ve been in this cycle of
injury, pain, rehab, injury,
pain, rehab, and it’s been un-
ceasing, unrelenting, both
in-season and offseason,
and I felt stuck in it,” the 29-
year-old Pro Bowl playersaid. “The only way I see out
is to no longer play football.”
Luck wasn’t the first
standout player to end his
career early. The list
stretches from Jim Brown
and Gale Sayers to
Gronkowski and receiver
Calvin Johnson.
Though Weddle says he
does not use cannabis —
“I’ve always played through
injury ... it’s something I can
deal with” — he appreciates
the need to address pain
management.
“There have been studies
that say marijuana helps,”
he said. “If it helps a guy,
fine.”
But the 12-year veteran
worries about the effort to
change NFL policy; his con-
cerns have nothing to do
with medicine or research
data.
The issue could factor
into negotiations for the
next collective bargaining
agreement between the
league and the players
union. Under the current
protocol — which mandates
only a preseason test for
anyone with no prior pos-
itive results — Weddle sus-
pects that players who want
to use cannabis can do so
without getting caught if
they are careful.
“The union shouldn’t
make concessions on other
things to make this legal,” he
said. “It’s basically already
legal.” For now, the NFL has
convened sessions with
team physicians, athletic
trainers and medical ex-
perts to discuss all aspects
of the player-health initia-
tive. The four members of
the pain management com-
mittee have met once al-
ready and are scheduled to
reconvene later this month.
“I think it’s really impor-
tant that we go where the
science takes us here,” Sills
said last spring. “Not based
on personal anecdote or
opinion, but what is the
medical science.”
Given the league’s his-
tory with marijuana policy,
advocates have reason to be
skeptical. But Turley senses
momentum building.
“They only needed to
crack the door open on this,”
he said. “I think massive
things are going to come.”Proponents say cannabis offers relief
ROB GRONKOWSKIis among many former NFL players who have voiced support for CBD-based products.
He says they “would have made a huge difference in my pain management during my career.”Corey SipkinAssociated Press[NFL, from D1]