Ricky Williams thinks NFL teams will use marijuana in an official capacity in the future
doubledragon
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Ricky Williams talks about how he thinks things are changing with regards to marijuana use in the NFL.
Ricky Williams shares two stories about NFL players' marijuana use during his time with Saints and Ravens
While the conversation around cannabis usage in sports, and the country as a whole, has evolved over the past decade, former NFL running back Ricky Williams wants you to know pro football players have been blazing up for quite some time.
In an interview with Mackenzie Salmon on USA TODAY's weekly show Sports Seriously, the eccentric former running back shared two stories from his career that revealed how NFL players used marijuana to deal with pain management:
I played a long time ago and I played for a long time. So things have changed a lot when I first got into the league.
My rookie year, a Hall of Fame player on the team invited me over to his house and he gave me the speech about how to take care of yourself in the NFL. And he pulled out some cannabis, crushed it up, split a blunt, opened it up, put the cannabis in there, took a Vicodin, crushed it up, sprinkled the Vico in there, rolled up the blunt and passed it to me. That was a vet, teaching me as a rookie, how to take care of myself in the NFL.
Then there was this at the end of his career:
My last year in the NFL, I was playing for the Ravens. And one point we were in the playoffs and I was leaving the facility and there were guys coming in with a plate full of 'brownies.' They [were] going to go watch film, so yeah…
And now, because it's more legal, it's to the point, why wouldn't you [use it] if you're in the NFL?
For reference, Williams' rookie year was in 1999 with the New Orleans Saints and his last year in the league was in 2011 with the Baltimore Ravens. It wasn't until the new CBA was reached in 2020 when the NFL eased their policies on players' cannabis usage. Clearly players were not waiting for the new CBA to get their CBD (and THC) fix in the past.
Williams now has his own brand of cannabis called 'Highsman' and continues to be an advocate for cannabis use for pain management in sports.
He believes it's only a matter of time until NFL teams are using marijuana in an official capacity: "I think in the future, teams are gonna be supplying cannabis for the players because they've realized it's a healthy alternative [to] pharmaceuticals."
Comments
Great, now if we can get the referees to start smoking weed, we can really have a party!
Yea Ricky had better stick with stuff from
the dispensary, apparently the street stuff has him a bit loco
The NFL will probably end up allowing players to use it recreationally in the off season or maybe even not penalize a player for using it whenever but to make it part of their “Capacity” and issue it to the players is a ridiculous statement
I agree, I don't see a time when NFL teams are giving weed to their players to deal with injuries. I know that Aaron Rodgers uses it during games to take the edge off when he's getting sacked, but he gets away with everything anyway.
I could see it being used in a team capacity as Williams says. Maybe not smoking but using the topical lotions, edibles, oils or whatever else they may think up next. But Williams is definitely not the first or even the most outspoken on this subject. Many players get addicted to opioids from all the pain meds they get thrown at them and it's become a pretty big topic in the last few years with legalization gaining more ground across the country.