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Antonio Cromartie on NFL's marijuana policy: 'We're just going to do it anyway'


JustInFudge

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http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2014/02/antonio_cromartie_on_nfls_marijuana_policy_they_need_to_just_let_it_go.html

 

Say what you will about Antonio Cromartie, but the veteran cornerback continues to be one of the best interview subjects on the Jets roster. Cro doesn't do clichés and empty player-speak. He speaks his mind, is often thoughtful, and even if he sometimes might say a little too much, he deserves a ton of credit for frequently being so candid.

This one, which you can watch below, is from Friday. It slipped under the radar because something or other happened in North Jersey over the weekend. It's Cro talking to Ashlee Ray of This Is 50. Cro is excited about the salary-cap space the Jets have this offseason. He believes in quarterback Geno Smith, head coach Rex Ryan, and the talent the Jets have on defense. He even mentions which NFL players and coaches would be on a team he was building, a list that for him includes Ryan and Jets center Nick Mangold.

And at the 3:17 mark, Cro is asked about marijuana, which the NFL lists as a banned substance for which players can be tested. Take it away, Cro:

"They need to just let it go. We're just going to do it anyway. They just need to let it go. They need to go ahead and say, 'Ya'll go ahead, smoke it, do what you need to do.'"

Cro's got a point here. We just had a Super Bowl featuring two teams from states that have legalized the use of weed. And marijuana's status as a banned substance under the NFL's drug policy dates to a time when the country was less accepting over its use. The justification for weed's continued prohibition is losing steam.

But let's consider why players might want to use weed, regardless of what commissioner Roger Goodell has to say about it. As former NFL tight end Nate Jackson explains in his book, Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival from the Bottom of the Pile:

The NFL should remove marijuana from their banned substances list. Don't tell anyone about it: just stop testing for it.

Pain is a big problem in the NFL. Pain management is necessary.

Weed is the least harmful and least addictive of the painkillers players use to cope with the violent demands of the game.

 

To say nothing of how the NFL's ban on weed has reduced some players to resorting to other means.

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They all smoke it...all of them.  Everyone does.  Legalize it already.

 

Anyone see the Ricky Williams 30 for 30?  How he went on about how much it helps with the pain plus level setting all the other scrips they give players.

Not everyone. If I were guessing 50% plus or minus 10% either way.

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This is a bigger societal issue whether to legalize- not proper for football forum

 

 

Please no potitics on the board.

 

My bad yo, not my intention.

 

Football players love to smoke weed. I dont blame them.  The NFL shouldnt test for it.

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They all smoke it...all of them. Everyone does. Legalize it already.

Anyone see the Ricky Williams 30 for 30? How he went on about how much it helps with the pain plus level setting all the other scrips they give players.

This post smacks of racist thought.

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They all smoke it...all of them.  Everyone does.  Legalize it already.

 

Anyone see the Ricky Williams 30 for 30?  How he went on about how much it helps with the pain plus level setting all the other scrips they give players.

 

This. The debate on this has long been settled. Half the country is using it for medicinal purposes and as soon as states like Florida and Texas get over themselves the rest will too. We start injecting all kinds of sh*t in these guys at the high school level and all of that crap is a billion times worse.

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They all smoke it...all of them.  Everyone does.  Legalize it already.

 

Anyone see the Ricky Williams 30 for 30?  How he went on about how much it helps with the pain plus level setting all the other scrips they give players.

 

Exactly. Has anyone here seen the Chronic Pain documentary with Ray Lucas? These guys are taking 20x the dose that would sedate the average person in a month, on a daily basis. It showed how a lot of the guys have to go to rehab clinics before surgery, because the morphine and dilotid drips post-surgery don't even come close to the level of pain-mediation that they were getting from self-medicating.  But the NFL is totally okay with them being on a cocktail of prescription meds that could sedate a heard of elephant, but smoke some weed and your livelihood is gone. It's just ridiculous. 

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says the resident doctor.  

 

nice. 

 

It's not possible to delve into the subject without politics, but it's beyond hypocritical how alcohol, quite possibly the most destructive of all drugs, is lauded on national television in every single american venue, but weed is considered a minion of the antichrist. And I love me some alcohol.  

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This. The debate on this has long been settled. Half the country is using it for medicinal purposes and as soon as states like Florida and Texas get over themselves the rest will too. We start injecting all kinds of sh*t in these guys at the high school level and all of that crap is a billion times worse.

 

God, I hope we get this right.

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God, I hope we get this right.

 

I have a hard time imagining you guys won't. You've got the state with the largest percentage of citizens over 65 at roughly 17%, a number that's probably going to be closer to 25% by 2020, who are on numerous prescription meds already, I have to imagine with all the knew studies coming out about medicinal purposes, Florida is a prime state for it.  

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Cortisone and Oxy tho...much safer for players. For sure.

 

 

I saw a former player, after getting a total-knee replacement, crying in agony because the morphine drip that they hooked him up to wasn't even touching the pain.  These guys take more pills in a single day than the average person is prescribed for a week's recovery from major surgery, it's shocking. It's like the Brett Favre rehab story: people bash him for being an addict on one hand and on the other cheer for his ironman record of consecutive games started.  They say 30%+ of the illegal drug market is legal prescription medicine, and that's an extremely conservative estimate. The NFL needs to realize that anything they can do to limit the amount of pills these guys take is a good thing and if smoking weed does that, then jesus, let em do it.  But no, safer helmets and hits below the shoulders will solve everything lol.

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I saw a former player, after getting a total-knee replacement, crying in agony because the morphine drip that they hooked him up to wasn't even touching the pain.  These guys take more pills in a single day than the average person is prescribed for a week's recovery from major surgery, it's shocking. It's like the Brett Favre rehab story: people bash him for being an addict on one hand and on the other cheer for his ironman record of consecutive games started.  They say 30%+ of the illegal drug market is legal prescription medicine, and that's an extremely conservative estimate. The NFL needs to realize that anything they can do to limit the amount of pills these guys take is a good thing and if smoking weed does that, then jesus, let em do it.  But no, safer helmets and hits below the shoulders will solve everything lol.

 

  It's not just the NFL.  You see it in the NBA as well.   You'll see a guy go down with some injury that probably should knock them out for a long time.  But then they come back in the second half or next quarter and they look like they were never injured before.      These players get shot up with everything under the sun to keep them on the field or court.   And in the NBA when you have huge superstars that are far more important in a team concept compared to 1 guy on a team in the NFL,  they need to be on the court.     

 

 But it's also why you see guys getting re-injured far to often and why by the time many of these guys are in their forties they wind up dying or can't walk.  And in the NFL, can't remember.     The medicine, like most medicine in the world these days,  just masks the pain.   Do that long enough and you're just killing your body, not feeling the real pain, and then one day you wake up and you're pretty much screwed.    And all those painkillers and shots and everything else isn't good for the body at all.

 

  As far as mary jane,   sports teams are going to have a hard time banning Pot if it's legal in a few states.   But that'll take time.  It'll be the same in the workplace as well.    When two states already have it sort of legalized,  the President is telling the Feds to back off,  and other states use it for medicinal purposes,  it's hard to say "You can't get this job or you're suspended for 4 games" because you smoked some weed.      I know the NBA & NFL are already looking at this issue.      It suddenly becomes one of those "well do you test players for Beer all the time?"

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I have a hard time imagining you guys won't. You've got the state with the largest percentage of citizens over 65 at roughly 17%, a number that's probably going to be closer to 25% by 2020, who are on numerous prescription meds already, I have to imagine with all the knew studies coming out about medicinal purposes, Florida is a prime state for it.  

 

 

It's Florida.

 

I'll believe it when I see it. 

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It is a gateway drug and leads to being a murderer like Aaron Hernandez.  I'll bet Hernandez smoked weed.  

Cromartie should be in jail when he tests positive. The league should suspend him for 8 weeks just for saying what he did.  

 

Total gateway drug.  When I smoke, I suddenly get this urge to do heroin and kill people. 

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