The NFL is one of America’s most brutal and violent sports. Professional football boasts of the world’s top players.
They are the smartest players; they are also the biggest, strongest, and fastest athletes the sports industry has to offer.
As of 2016, there were 774 colleges and universities that provided football programs. Out of those programs, 1696 players are carried amongst 32 NFL teams per season.
The sport is a fast-paced, high impact game. Players that are anywhere from 180-325 pounds plus, run at Olympic like speeds. Getting hit at angles where the reaction time to protect oneself is in a split second, players often take vicious hits anywhere between 134 to 168 times per game, 16 times per season. That’s not including preseason and playoffs. Players take a pounding, often resulting in pains aches, soreness or injuries. Even with every piece of padding and equipment protection available, pain is inevitable.
For years players have dealt with pain in a multitude of ways. The team doctors and physicians prescribe various medications that help alleviate the pain but are slowly killing the body’s organs. Also, many players become addicted to painkillers.
Recently, NFL players have raised the idea that marijuana use helps to ease pain and aches associated with the aches of professional football.
CANNABIS: A BETTER WAY TO EASE THE PAIN?
Studies have shown that the active chemical in cannabis called CBD or cannabidiol, has helped cancer patients and children with epilepsy. It does not get you high nor does it have any mood-altering effects. It also may act as an anti-inflammatory, aiding in treating and preventing head injuries. THC, the chemical in marijuana that does get you high, has been found by researchers to have some benefits that might be able to assist with managing aches and pains.
At this time, the NFL has been opposed to legalizing marijuana for players to use to assist with pain, but they are considering it with an eye on the research of the benefits of this drug.
Commissioner Roger Goodell is willing to listen, but stated that:
“To date, they haven’t said this is a change we think you should make that’s in the best interests of the health and safety of our players,” he said. “If they do, we’re certainly going to consider that.”
Football players know the risk of injury, pain, and health in which the sport contains when entering into organized competition. The brutally of the sport is what draws men and women alike to the game. Pain is a part of the experience, but that doesn’t change the fact that after all of the fame, fortune, and fun, they are all looking for a way to ease the pain that is associated with it. The drugs they are given by the doctors may help the pain, but its long-term effects are killing their bodies; something the sport is doing to them enough already.
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