Marijuana to be legal in NFL? Pot could end up saving football

The NFL has been a dominant sports league in the US for years but some think football could go the route of horse racing and boxing, losing popularity by creating too much concern over health issues. Marijuana, though banned from the NFL, could greatly improve the health and recovery of professional football players' injuries. Specifically, researchers believe cannabidiol, 1 of the 100 chemicals in marijuana is able to stabilize the brain after injury. Former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer is leading a campaign to raise money for studies of cannabidiol and how they can treat common football related brain injuries like CTE. Plummer claims cannabis is healthier and many players have smoked through their careers using primarily cannabis instead of addictive prescription drugs.

More and more reports are saying that marijuana can — in a healthy way — help alleviate the pain that so many current and former football players experience. Not only can it help take away the pain from the daily nicks, bruises and bumps that players suffer from an opposing player’s helmet off the shin or a facemask in the forearm, it is also becoming increasingly clear that it can help treat CTE, a progressive degenerative disease in the brain caused by trauma.

“I’d say 80-90 percent of NFL players are on some kind of drug to get them through the pain and the stress and the anxiety of playing a full football season,” Plummer told Metro. “And when these players are done playing, I’d say 80-90 percent of them continue on high priced meds for most of the rest of their lives. Whether it’s cannabis or Percocets or whatever — there’s a lot of drugs in the league.”

Plummer is convinced that marijuana is infinitely more safe than the other pain relievers that players put into their bodies.