This Sports Illustrated piece on the growing prevalence of marijuana use among NFL prospects is such a carnival of mind-bending idiocy that I wonder if I'll ever enjoy the sport quite as much after having read it. The whole thing is just a series of anonymous quotes from NFL coaches and executives acting like marijuana is some sort of mysterious plague gripping professional sports. Yet for all the deep concern about it, you won't find any attempt at explaining why anyone even gives a sh*t about this to begin with.
So what if an athlete has a secret history of getting super baked. Does he have a secret history of sucking at football? That would be worth looking into. But the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the real story behind all this nonsense is actually rather simple and far too embarrassing to acknowledge.
I seriously doubt any of this has anything to do with concerns about the impact of marijuana use on an athlete's performance. The sport of football has a rich history of dominant players known for indulging in cannabis and it would be laugh-out-loud moronic to suggest that the stuff was gonna screw up anybody's stats. Nobody even bothers to argue that, because it's dumb and everyone knows it's dumb.
The real issue is that you have to worry about these guys failing drug tests or getting arrested and then having to deal with seismic media attention and pissed off corporate sponsors. It's all about money, but you can't say that without revealing the mindlessness of marijuana policy in general, which the NFL isn't about to weigh into. Instead, we're stuck with marijuana-in-sports coverage that remains ubiquitous, yet utterly devoid of substance.
Meanwhile, as SAFER points out, the NFL is married to the alcohol industry and couldn't possibly do more to shove beer in everyone's face at every conceivable opportunity. It is unquestionably the best example that exists of an organization which simultaneously glorifies and promotes alcohol, while treating marijuana use as an intolerable vice.
I dare anyone to consume on a frequent basis all the nutritious food and beverages the NFL wishes to sell to you, and once you're sufficiently fat and drunk, you can then make it your business to lecture Rookie of the Year Percy Harvin about whether treating his migraine headaches with marijuana is a responsible choice.
So what if an athlete has a secret history of getting super baked. Does he have a secret history of sucking at football? That would be worth looking into. But the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the real story behind all this nonsense is actually rather simple and far too embarrassing to acknowledge.
I seriously doubt any of this has anything to do with concerns about the impact of marijuana use on an athlete's performance. The sport of football has a rich history of dominant players known for indulging in cannabis and it would be laugh-out-loud moronic to suggest that the stuff was gonna screw up anybody's stats. Nobody even bothers to argue that, because it's dumb and everyone knows it's dumb.
The real issue is that you have to worry about these guys failing drug tests or getting arrested and then having to deal with seismic media attention and pissed off corporate sponsors. It's all about money, but you can't say that without revealing the mindlessness of marijuana policy in general, which the NFL isn't about to weigh into. Instead, we're stuck with marijuana-in-sports coverage that remains ubiquitous, yet utterly devoid of substance.
Meanwhile, as SAFER points out, the NFL is married to the alcohol industry and couldn't possibly do more to shove beer in everyone's face at every conceivable opportunity. It is unquestionably the best example that exists of an organization which simultaneously glorifies and promotes alcohol, while treating marijuana use as an intolerable vice.
I dare anyone to consume on a frequent basis all the nutritious food and beverages the NFL wishes to sell to you, and once you're sufficiently fat and drunk, you can then make it your business to lecture Rookie of the Year Percy Harvin about whether treating his migraine headaches with marijuana is a responsible choice.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
BIG PHARM WOULD LOOSE MONEY TOO
This article points out a lot of keys issues we are "morally" dealing with. He we have athletes taking the safer route by using something that is "natural" vs "big pharm addictive pain killers". Does AMERICA NEED MORE ELVIS,HEATH LEDGER,ANNA NICOLE, MICHAEL JACKSON DEATH? IF THEY ONLY SMOKED MARIJUANA, THEY WOULD ALL BE ALIVE TODAY because you cannot overdose. You promote college kids drinking beers and going to the hospital getting stomach pumps while trying to fight you off because they are to drunk to control themselves. Pot smokers are WAY MORE PEACEFUL. I would rather have my kids smoke pot then big hooked on VICODIN and other painkillers.
Amen brother, Amen.
This goes for more or less every professional sport.
The policy seems to be: "Keep'em doped on anti-depressant and painkillers, keep'em entertained and keep'em in debt."
... seems to be working ok.
Hope
I read some of this article too, but I think I found it less appalling than you.
I think it's funny that so many (good) players are doing it that they have to actually be semi-rational about their drug use. One of the coaches said they try to determine if the smoker is an addict, the same way they would with alcohol, or if it's just 'experimental' use.
Re: Hope
It's true that the article describes a certain amount of tolerance regarding past use, but these guys are expected to repent and abstain in order to play. It's onerous and absurd.
This is an excellent activism tool
Actitists: Store a link to this, and to a good story about Micheal Phelps. Anytime you see a discussion or drug ad about how marijuanna makes you a loser and destroys your ambition, post these links. If Marijuanna robs your ambition, why is it so hard to find top tier athletes that don't smoke pot?
"The real issue is that you
"The real issue is that you have to worry about these guys failing drug tests or getting arrested and then having to deal with seismic media attention and pissed off corporate sponsors."
This, ofcourse, IS the issue. If marijuana were legal, the NFL wouldn't give a rat's ass if their players smoked it, since it is not subject to disqualification for being "performance-enhancing". If it were legal they would let their results speak for themselves on the field, and only discriminate if their performance fell off.
But the mere fact of illegality means that the potential exists for sponsors to DEMAND lower rates if the club is "shamed" in the media for an arrest or dirty piss-test, regardless of any actual impact the media attention has on the team or sponsor. It really has nothing to do with the plant at all, it is about the wedge issue created by players involved in illegal activity that "devalues" a team to advertizers and sponsors.
Budweiser is looking for ANY excuse to demand a team lower their advertizing rates, and a high profile marijuana bust is one of the common excuses to which a team acquiesce.
Dirty secret behind alcohol sports sponsorship
So far none of you guys mentioned the big enchilada: hot burning overdose slave niggotine $igarette addiction marketing conspiracy.
1. Binge drinking recruitment system: to pass for normal among peers, belong to the club and not be picked on, younger schoolboys have to pretend to be interested in "sports", and then it turns out you have to drink as many beers as the others do too. (You may have to smoke a $igarette or two, or spend an hour or hours breathing in a room where a dozen $igarettes have been smoked-- "side stream"). Later someone will advise you to use "a $igarette or two" to "sober up" enough to get the car driven safely home, or to keep awake all night cramming for the big test. Big 2WackGo knows binge drinking is one of the main ways kids get hooked on niggotine, and therefore does not want to see alcohol go down.
2. Further down the road: after smoking $100,000 worth of $igarettes in 40 years, a poor puffsucker victim has to spend another $100,000 in his last decade on hospital, surgery, bloodpressure pills etc. (Big pHARMa feeds off Big 2WackGo.)
Big 2WackGo fears cannabis legalization because (a) some victims might succeed in using cannabis to help quit tobackgo, and (B) modern strong weed usaers are increasingly learning to use 25-mg. single-toke microdosage equipment and if this conservative rationality spilled over into the niggotine $igarette addict population it might be the end of the cash cow trillion dollar 700-mg. $igarette marketing format.
Big pHARMa fears cannabis legalization because (a) cannabis can replace a $#!+load of high profit drugs, and (B) popularization of one-hitters, vaporizers etc. at the expense of hot burning overdose $igarettes could cause a drastic drop in number of $igarette-disease victims needing $$ drug treatments.
Big Sports Media fears cannabis legalization because youngsters allowed to serve moderate, low-heat, low-CO cannabis tokes will soon spontaneously get interested in handwork, carpentry, forestry etc. (where your eyes have interesting stuff to watch your hands do) and wind up spending ZERO time the rest of their lives sitting in front of a screen watching other guys play ball between beer ads.
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