Le'Veon Bell says he smoked marijuana before games
doubledragon
Posts: 23,034 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is mind boggling, Le'Veon Bell claims he used to smoke marijuana before Steelers games and basically played great.
Le’Veon Bell Claims He Smoked Marijuana Before NFL Games
Former All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell made a name for himself for his play on the field but also gained some infamy during his playing days for his marijuana use. The former star tailback was suspended several times during his career as a result of his habit and apparently was high during some of his better games.
“I feel like I got a misconception about me with the whole weed thing,” Bell said on the Steel Here podcast. “I was wrong just cuz I shouldn’t have smoked in the car, regardless. But looking back at this, that’s what I did. When I was playing football, I smoked, bro. Even before the games I would smoke. I’d go out there and run for 150 [yards] and two [touchdowns].”
When speaking about smoking in the car, Bell was referring to a 2014 incident in which he was arrested for driving under the influence and marijuana possession. As a result, he was suspended for two games to start the ’15 season. He was suspended again for the first three games of the ’16 season for failing a random drug test.
At the time of his suspensions, Bell was one of the premier running backs in the NFL on one of the best offenses in the league. He was criticized heavily for the suspensions, but apparently the marijuana was a consistent factor in some of his better games.
Comments
Lots of players do that, thats why the NFL stopped testing for it or the punter would get "randomly" selected for almost every test cycle. I'm not a fan but it is healthier than the massive amounts of pain killers they dope guys up on before games. If you can play on Torodol you should be allowed to play on weed
Maybe the weed sent him on the moronic path to.screw up what he had in Pittsburgh
Check out this video, who remembers this play in 1980, Packers kicker Chester Marcol is on cocaine and his kick is blocked and he catches it and runs it in for the game winning touchdown.
hey DD...
Yes I do remember watching that one live on TV...
and a few weeks ago Chester Marcol was on boat charter talking about his addiction and they re-played his Touch-Down run...I think it was on a Great Lakes fishing episode; I'm not exactly sure on what the name of that fishing show was though...
...
I just looked him up and it seems that there are lots of videos of him sharing his story. I didn't know that he had lost his father to suicide.
There are so many stories like this interwoven within our lives and the lives of all we know and all of those we don't, including former professional athletes, etc.
We all have our own personal and family struggles. I often use this place as part of my own therapy. It's important.
I didn't see the play back then, since I was born in 1980, but I ran across that video on Twitter and couldn't believe how insane the play was. I later found out that Chester Marcol also wrote a book about his life.
being a Bears fan, i remember this play vividly. i was 8 at the time and i remember being mortified when i saw it. so weird -- it has probably been a good 4 decades since i've seen it and it just evoked a similar reaction.
I Totally Agree with you...
Mmm hmm, it's called trauma, I believe the fact that it happened against your Bears caused a great deal of pain to you. I know where your coming from, I still have nightmares about the Cam Newton Super Bowl fumble, I've become obsessed with the play, it's taken over my life, you should see the Valentines card I gave my wife this past February, I'm a sick man.
News flash:
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Also, athletes take drugs, drink alcohol and smoke. Before, after and sometimes during a game.
hey galaxy27,
I've got you beat on two years...and Yes me being a former South-Sider, I was brought up & raised in a Bears house...
To this day my P's watch Da Bears faithfully... when the Bears games start on TV, that's when I say to my P's: I'm going downstairs to watch "Real Football"...
What does P's mean?......Is it short for " parents?"
I never heard or saw it before now....
Around here we referred to our parents as,..."My Folks".
Learn something every day.....
I'm curious.
Yeah...my P's are my parents....
There was even a time when Bell and a few teammates got caught smoking in the car during halftime. 😎
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
At least they went to the car an werent doing the Scarface table of the old Mets lol
or smoking crack before/during games like LT. 😉
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
I cannot understand why a modern, professional athlete would ever consider smoking anything with the damage it will do to their lungs. the cardio/vascular system is of utmost importance to athletes. why in the world would they do anything to compromise it?
Foolishness.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
You can get away with stuff like that when your in your 20's
Has anyone watched this
that I understand. what I don't understand is why these guys wouldn't want to completely maximize their physical ability to compete. You only have 10-15 years as a pro athlete. To dominate and get paid the most for your efforts.
Why don't these guys have some self-discipline and push hard while they are young and get paid to their highest potential and then gracefully retire at 35 and then live however they want?
I will never understand.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
........what I don't understand is why these guys wouldn't want to completely maximize their physical ability to compete.
What's not to understand?...... For an addict, the substance of choice is the most important thing.....
Nothing comes in even a close second..... NOTHING.
It's a no brainer.....
Emphasis on.....NO BRAINS.....
Believe Me.....
I Should Know.....
I hear ya, I think that once that first contract sinks in they think that they have got to where they need to be and are happy to have it both ways, you got to remember alot of these guys are not all that bright.
Most of them come from poor backgrounds and at the college level they were coddled and taken care of, and then there is the young and dumb philosophy as well.
They basically all grew up smoking weed, the majority of atheletes in all pro sports do it. The NFL doesnt test for it, the NCAA basically looks the other way about, MLB doesnt test for it if youre on a 40 man roster, NBA doesnt test for it, WADA basically looks the otherway etc. As long as its being acquired from a good source and not some guy on the street corner who may or may not have laced it with fentanyl, it is safer and better than the pain pills or toradal shots and other injections teams hand out like candy to keep guys on the field to numb players up from pain. Some will use it as a sleeping aid as well instead of taking sleeping pills.
Smoking weed to eliminate pain or help with sleep is actually maximizing their potential. The other options are pain shots and pain pills that are very hard on the organs and highly addictive
I disagree. Smoking anything is hard on the lungs and if done chronically, will reduce O2 intake/absorption. The American lung association agrees. There are sources who believe Marijuana smoke to be more harmful to lung tissue than cigarette smoke. Who do you think will have more aerobic endurance, an athlete who is a non-smoker, or one who is smoking every day? And according to you having grown up doing it.
We all scoff at the old pics of Keith Hernandez and other players lighting up cigarettes in the dugout, smoking Marijuana is just as harmful, if not more so, to lung tissue.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
You know what else is hard on the body? Being a 350 pound lineman hitting another 350 pound linemen 70 times a game and that doesnt even count what you did during practice or the weight room that week. Having a 270 edge that runs a 4.4/4.5 blindside you. Having a career where your job is to get into collisions either hitting or getting hit with the force often equivalent or often exceeding a 30 mph car crash. Spending what would amount to weeks in terms of hours squatting behind the plate, throwing thousands of pitches a year, getting smashed into the boards or blocking a 100 mph slapshot.
Every player in these major professional leagues is using something at some point during the season, that goes for major college programs as well for football. Being a professional/high level athlete is hard on the body and pain management is a major part of staying on the field. Tyler Skaggs literally died of an overdose of ethanol, oxy, and fentanyl that was being provided by team employees to manage his pain that he then got extremely addicted too.
These pain pills that teams hand out like candy and have done so for decades are highly addictive and destroy organs. Weed or an edible is without question a much healthier safer option than eating handfuls of oxy and getting torodal shots all the time
And no weed isnt more harmful to lungs than smoking. Smokers generally smoke a pack a day and there still are pros that do that.
As far as who I think will have more endurance, the guy on weed will play longer if hes able to manage everything that way than the guy taking sleeping pills then chewing on oxy like candy through the day and getting a shot before games. Theres no way around the fact pain management has to happen and yes weed is by far the better option if thats effective then these highly addictive, highly easy to overdose on pharmaceutical drugs that create a physical dependency
https://tubitv.com/movies/405407/no-no-a-dockumentary
Well stated. A natural drug like marijuana over the long term will do less damage, both psychologically and physiologically, than the alternative of pain pills and shots, and even alcohol, which many athletes have used historically, too. I think there are some stubborn (and uninformed) perception issues surrounding the use of marijuana and while I wouldn't advocate just anyone to light up, marijuana, when used responsibly, can be a better alternative than some of aforementioned, more harmful options on the body.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Agreed. Im not advocating for people to run out and get it especially since it can be dangerous off the street corner, but it is a better option. We could always turn football into flag football, expand baseball to 80 man rosters and have nets behind homeplate, make hockey contact free and only allowed to shoot at a target with a clear path etc. I dont think people really want to see that. I get they use it for fun too, but if it gets the job done its the better option than the stronger things and something is going to need to be used at some point with the extreme stresses their bodies endure in major pro sports. Theres a reason why 30 is considered old and very few are still in the leagues at 35
I take it you smoke Marijuana.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I've already stated I dont, but even if I did it wouldnt change any of the facts about what I wrote. Its fine if you dont want to have an intelligent discussion about the stresses of high level collegiate and professional athletics and pain management especially in football, but its a bad look to just try and dismiss facts you dont like by going you must be a smoker route
He's changed his story about that game multiple times. I think he's making it up.
.....
I didn't watch the video. Years ago I read different pieces about it. I'd have to compare from memory.
He has variously claimed to be drunk, to be high, the timelines didn't add up, and so on.
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I am pretty familiar with high-level collegiate athletes' pain challenges. I have no personal experience at the pro level, but have read many accounts. There are many alternatives for athletes than smoking weed.
In this discussion, I am speaking specifically to cardiovascular health and Lung tissue damage due to smoking and not the efficacy of weed as a pain killer.
I mean, come on, would you advocate for a professional athlete to be smoking cigarettes in the dugout? EVERYONE scoffs at the photos of old-time athletes lighting up. The ALA finds marijuana smoke to be at least as if not more damaging than cig smoke.
As far as weed being an effective "drug", that is very debatable. I have many close associates in the medical field, and they are FAR from sold on weed having much medicinal value. In fact, it makes upper scopes and sedation much more complicated than for non-weed users. There are long-term effects to weed as well.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I'll start by just addressing that theres really no situation where an upper scope that isnt some sort of trauma emergency surgery would be even relevant to the conversation. Opioids are also far more complicated to try and make sedation with than weed would be anyways and more than one pro athlete has died from them in the last 20 years
As far as the alternatives what would you say they are? Massages, hot cold baths, cupping, acupuncture, cryo etc? Theres some big time superstars that like the cupping and acupuncture. But none of these have anything to do with a numbing effect for an actual injury they are expected to play through or for football in general for getting into a car crash constantly until the game is over.
Drugs and substances cannot be we can only discuss this one part . Simply breathing, being around pollen/dust and aging damages your lungs. Whats more dangerous a 280 pound 4.4 40 blindsiding someone in the back or a joint. Its easily the car crash type impact or even if it was head on hence all the brain damage and all the retired players that yes do smoke weed to numb the pain. And yes it is effective in numbing guys up if they like it. The real problem is when its not enough and we get down the stronger drug road that they probably had happen already for football players. The teams whether professional or big time college they dont care, the players are a commodity and nothing more and if they can legally drug one up to win a game they will offer it