At a meeting this past weekend that included only NFL team owners, the issue of marijuana and its future in professional football was brought up by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Specifically, Jones “wants the league to drop its prohibition on marijuana use.”
In recent years, the issue of marijuana has come up more often than the past due to the plant’s potential for pain management and the obvious long-term pain and damage that a career in professional football has shown affect those who participate.
While what Jones is suggesting seems like a good idea, it is a long way from becoming a reality.
For starters, Jones was reportedly reminded at this past weekend’s meeting that marijuana is a collective bargaining issue, meaning the players would have to “make one or more concessions” to the owners “in exchange for significant changes to the marijuana prohibition.” What those one or more concessions are is vitally important considering that NFLPA officials have “made it clear for months that they have no interest in granting financial concessions in exchange for nonfinancial ones in any upcoming CBA talks.”
Then there’s the testing the league conducts for…