Martavis Bryant: The NFL Must Change Its Marijuana Policy

The National Football League needs to realize that it is 2016 and that suspending players for using marijuana is absurd. 

The National Football League has a real marijuana problem.

No, the problem is not that some NFL players choose to smoke marijuana. Anybody who has been fortunate enough to cover sports and obtain any level of inside access knows that professional athletes use marijuana. The NFL, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer and other sports competitions are filled with marijuana users.

Who cares?

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The answer to that, of course, is the NFL, an organization that has routinely punished players who have been caught with marijuana in their systems. Once it was learned over the weekend that Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant was on the verge of being suspended for at least one full NFL season, it was assumed by respected reporter Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and by others that Bryant had been popped for marijuana.

Let’s begin by removing any and all political opinions from the discussion. Maybe you believe that marijuana is a dangerous drug that should be illegal in the United States across all walks of life let alone in the NFL. Perhaps you live in a world where Reefer Madness is more of a legitimate documentary than it is a humorous film from generations ago, one that was ridiculously out of touch at the time of its release.

We’ve got some bad news for you.

Marijuana is going to be legal in the United States sooner rather than later. That is not a hot take, nor is it a wish for the future. Any intelligent person who has followed the situation can see that how adult voters in this country view marijuana has changed over time. The drug is already legal in multiple states. For whatever reasons, right or wrong, we have just stopped caring if people choose to use marijuana while on their own time.

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It should be pointed out that the NFL has not, as of the posting of this piece, publicly announced that Bryant is suspended because of anything involving marijuana. Bryant’s agent has, per Tom Pelissero of USA Today Sports, claimed that Bryant is going to enter a rehabilitation facility because of issues with depression and because the player has a “problem with marijuana.”

What we do know, however, is that the NFL has had no issue banning players who have been found to be marijuana users. One of the reasons that Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon has gotten himself in trouble to the point that he was suspended for the entire 2015 NFL regular season was because he has a history of using marijuana. Gordon has, to our knowledge, not failed a league drug test in over a year, and he is hoping to be reinstated as soon as later this month.

Marijuana is not a performing-enhancing drug. It does not help a NFL player pack on extra muscles. The drug doesn’t make a WR such as Martavis Bryant catch the ball any better or run tighter routes. Smoking or ingesting marijuana won’t make Bryant faster, nor will it turn an average player into an All-Pro who will one day be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Florio touched upon the absurdity of the NFL’s marijuana policy via the previously-linked piece.

"If Bryant, one of the best receivers in the NFL, misses the season because of marijuana, it will be even more reason for the NFL to take a serious look at the sensibility of telling players that they can’t consume on their own time a substance that is legal to use for all purposes in two of the 22 states in which the NFL does business."

The NFL has serious issues that need to be addressed for the future existence of the league. Player such as Blackmon, quarterback Johnny Manziel, running back Joseph Randle and others have deep-rooted issues that go beyond using any drug such as marijuana. Players like Calvin Johnson are retiring in their physical primes. We seemingly can’t go a week without learning about a former NFL player suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Players smoking weed doesn’t even make the list of what should concern the league, and that the NFL Players Association hasn’t demanded that the league change its policy regarding the drug is nothing short of astonishing.

It is understandable that a NFL head coach would not want a player to show up to a practice or to a game high on marijuana or on any substance. An athlete who is in a physical and/or physiological state that he requires to use marijuana right before a practice or a game probably shouldn’t take the field on that particular day. A coach who is tasked with being the boss of a NFL roster should have the right to ban substances such as marijuana and alcohol from his locker room.

Leave these decisions to the teams, NFL, and drop your outdated marijuana policy once and for all.

What reason does the NFL or any person have for caring if a player uses marijuana on an off day or in the offseason? So long as that individual is not arrested and charged with breaking a law, it should not even be public knowledge that a player uses marijuana. We know enough about marijuana to understand that it has medical value to players who literally put their bodies and lives on the line during games up to 20 times a year.

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Dark days are coming for the NFL. It’s great that the league draws historic television ratings with each season, but kids around the country are being encouraged to avoid playing football because of long-term health risks. Logic tells us that it is inevitable that a young star player is going to pass away in his early twenties and that it will be learned after his death that he suffered from CTE.

Marijuana can be an aid for the athletes who bless the NFL by playing this great game. Self-medicating should no longer be a reason for any player to be suspended by the league.