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, he’s in the Hall of Fame now, 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.”
You can watch the full Sports Seriously interview here: