NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday said the league and its advisors have "been studying" potential use of marijuana for medicinal purposes for players, but to date, they "haven't said that this is a change we think you should make." Goodell: "If they do, we're certainly going to consider that, but to date they haven't really said that." Goodell added, "You still have to look at a lot of aspects of marijuana use. Is it something that can be negative to the health of our players? Listen, you’re ingesting smoke, so that’s not usually a very positive thing that people would say. It does have addictive nature. There are a lot of compounds in marijuana that may not be healthy for the players long-term. All of those things have to be considered. It's not as simple as someone just wants to feel better after a game" (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 4/28).
GET WITH THE TIMES: THE RINGER's Claire McNear wrote as commissioner, Goodell is "capable of advocating and legislating social change." His duty is "not to hold the league to the moral standards of decades past; it's to determine how to do best by players (who overwhelmingly support the use of medical marijuana) and fans." There is "carefully weighing medical treatments before prescribing them to athletes, and then there's plain old disregard of the evidence that medical marijuana (a) is a highly effective pain treatment and (b) carries a relatively low risk of addiction when used responsibly" (THERINGER.com, 4/28). THE MMQB's Peter King writes the NFL, despite its "protestations to the contrary, has to get serious about using marijuana for pain management." King: "Because it's going to be used anyway" (MMQB.SI.com, 5/1). In Boston, Ron Borges wrote, "A league that regularly pumps its players full of Vicodin, OxyContin and other powerful opiates ... yet are regularly cleared to play in the Super Bowl is worried about marijuana use? Really?" Borges: "What’s more addictive, marijuana or bourbon? Weed or whiskey?" Goodell "sounded like he'd just watched 'Reefer Madness'" (BOSTON HERALD, 4/30). In San Diego, Nick Canepa noted Goodell said that there is "no place for marijuana in the NFL." Canepa: "But pain pills? No sweat" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 4/30).
UNCERTAIN FUTURE: In N.Y., Ken Belson wrote there is a “sense that storm clouds are gathering” around the NFL. Last season, for the first time, “ratings at every one of the league’s top broadcast partners declined," and team owners now must “confront the possibility that the networks will resist paying [even] larger sums for the right to air games.” Meanwhile, the “wave of relocations that pushed the league into new markets ... re-emphasized that the NFL’s biggest priority remains making money" regardless of the "complaints from deserted fans.” The league also is "facing more cosmic questions, most notably the long-term effects of concussions.” The NFL "will not fall from its perch any time soon," though its growth "may slow” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/29).
