NFL reportedly sent a letter to NFLPA offering to work on marijuana study
The league is still unlikely to change its marijuana policy until the next collective bargaining negotiations
By
Jared Dubin
•
2 min read
The NFL sent a letter to the NFL Players Association this week offering to work hand in hand on a study that looks into the use of marijuana as a pain-management tool. According to the Washington Post, the NFLPA is already conducting its own study and has not yet responded to the NFL's offer.
"We look forward to working with the Players Association on all issues involving the health and safety of our players," Joe Lockhart, the NFL's executive vice president of communications, said in a statement.
This, of course, is not nearly the first time the issue of marijuana as a pain reliever has come up for the NFL.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, one of the most influential people in all of football, has reportedly advocated for the league to drop its ban on marijuana. Jerry's son, Stephen Jones, who acts as the Cowboys' executive vice president and COO, openly stated that the system "needs to be heavily scrutinized."
Former player and current ESPN analyst Randy Moss stated, "I think the NFL just needs to loosen up the rules and let everybody live." And recently-retired tackle Eugene Monroe has been advocating for the league to study the effects of marijuana as a pain-manager for years.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has previously positioned himself as being strongly against making any changes to the league's marijuana policy.
"I think you still have to look at a lot of aspects of marijuana use. Is it something that can be negative to the health of our players? You're ingesting smoke, so that's not usually a positive thing. It does have an addictive nature," Goodell said in April. "There are a lot of compounds in marijuana that might not be healthy for players long-term. It's not as simple as someone just wants to feel better after a game. We really want to help our players ... but I want to make sure the negative consequences aren't something that we'll be held accountable for years down the road."
Those comments came after he had previously left some wiggle room, stating in a radio interview that, "We've had several conversations about this issue and several years ago we did take a less punitive approach to marijuana. That will be one of the subjects in the collective bargaining process, which we'd like to get into sooner rather than later."
As he alluded to in that statement, the issue is seen as one that is not likely to be resolved outside of the collective bargaining process. The current collective bargaining agreement runs through 2020, so it could still be several more years before we see any changes that come from whatever study is or isn't conducted by the league and its players.
