THERE'S GRASS ON THE FOOTBALL FIELD

Despite Stiff Penalties, More Incoming Players Cop to Using
Marijuana; Some Calls for Medical Use

As the NFL Draft gets under way, one of the hot topics inside the
league is the growing number of top prospects who have admitted
smoking pot or have been caught doing so. Based on information
obtained from NFL team executives, agents, scouts and trainers, just
under one-third of the 327 players who attended this year's NFL
pre-draft scouting camp, or combine, had some incident involving
marijuana turn up in interviews or background checks-which NFL teams
collect and share before and during the event.

This number represents a 30% increase from the season before.

The NFL and its players union declined to comment on these totals.
While it's impossible to know how many current NFL players smoke pot,
there have been several incidents in recent years involving
high-profile NFL players. In 2006, Ricky Williams of the Miami
Dolphins, a former Heisman Trophy winner, was suspended for one year
by the NFL after testing positive for violating the league's
substance-abuse policy for a fourth time. (He's said publicly he has
used marijuana.) Last year, according to two people familiar with the
situation, Percy Harvin-a wide receiver for the Minnesota
Vikings-tested positive for marijuana at the draft combine.

In 2008, the same season that he was named Super Bowl MVP for the
Pittsburgh Steelers, wide receiver Santonio Holmes was charged with
marijuana possession, although charges were dropped in 2009. (Messrs.
Williams, Harvin and Holmes did not return calls for comment.)

Kyle Turley, a former All-Pro lineman who retired in 2008, says he
smoked marijuana at times throughout his 10-year NFL career.

NFL players are only tested once for marijuana, between April and
August, he says, so he stayed clean before the test and then felt
free to smoke afterwards. He says he did so to relax and to help keep
up his appetite to maintain his playing weight. "I know half the
building of every NFL team smokes pot, or has, but it's so taboo
nobody will say it," he says. Mark Stepnoski, a former five-time Pro
Bowl center who once served as president of the Texas chapter of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says he
regularly used the drug during his playing career. For him, marijuana
wasn't about recreational enjoyment-it was a means of pain
management. "It would just make me feel better," he says.

While the overall rate of pot smoking among the NFL's draft prospects
isn't out of line with the number of U.S. adults (41% by one recent
study) who say they've tried the drug, the number of incoming players
with marijuana histories is a source of concern for NFL teams.

The NFL's penalties for marijuana use are among the most severe in
professional team sports, and a player who's likely to test positive
can hurt a team's chances.

William Thomas, a former Pro Bowl NFL linebacker who works as a scout
for the Oakland Raiders, says NFL teams recognize "marijuana is a
drug that more people have tried. It happens." What the Raiders have
to figure out, he says, is whether it's likely to be an ongoing
issue. In any case, Mr. Thomas says, "It's definitely a mark against you."

As debate on this subject continues, however, there is one question
that hasn't been widely considered. At a time when 14 states have
made cannabis a legal medical option-and more than a dozen more have
pending legislation or ballot measures to legalize medical
marijuana-is it possible the NFL and its players union could consider
allowing some players to take the drug if they can get legal
perscriptions? Given the painful nature of football, the chronic
injuries it can produce and the increasing availability of medical
cannabis, a growing chorus of former NFL players and physicians who
prescribe marijuana says pot should be considered as a treatment for
the most common ailments football players face.

Mr. Stepnoski believes marijuana is a better treatment than many
prescription painkillers. "If given the choice, I think guys would be
much better off taking a cannabis extract," he says. Mr. Turley, the
former lineman, says it's "ridiculous that the NFL makes such a big
deal out of a plant that has real medicinal values."

Frank Lucido, a primary-care physician in Berkeley, Calif., who has
two former NFL players as patients, says he believes marijuana is
practically designed for football ailments, which range from
headaches to depression to effects of violent contact. "The most
common thing I see in NFL players is chronic orthopedic pain," he
says. In California, doctors are allowed to prescribe marijuana to
any patient whose health they believe would be improved-and Dr.
Lucido says football players could qualify for treatment. "I say
marijuana should not be a banned substance [in the NFL]. It has too
many medical benefits."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says the league has had "no discussion"
with its medical advisors or the players union about changing the
league's marijuana policy. "The program supports the health and
safety of our players and the integrity of our game," he says. Mr.
Aiello added that the league doesn't grant therapeutic use exemptions
for medical marijuana.

He said the league's medical advisers say it is "extremely unlikely"
that a person would have a condition that requires this medication
and would also be able to play professional football.

Victor Prisk is a sports-medicine orthopedic surgeon at the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who has treated
college-football players. He believes cannabis might be helpful for
people with the kind of neuropathic pain related to multiple
sclerosis-but he's not certain it should be used for the sort of
musculoskeletal pain that NFL players endure. Dr. Prisk says it could
be argued that cannabis may be a performance-enhancing drug. "It can
increase appetite for a lineman who needs to put on weight," he says.

Not all NFL teams view marijuana equally. One college lineman who was
projected to be picked in the first round of the draft Thursday
identified himself as one of the players from the combine who
admitted trying marijuana. When he told the teams, he said their
reactions were wildly different. "Some really didn't care, some went
crazy over it," the player said. "Honestly, it doesn't help you play
better, it just relaxes you after."

One five-year NFL veteran said he would be wary of allowing medical
exemptions for marijuana use. "What if it also leads to laziness and
lack of responsibility?" he asks. "What if you become so relaxed, you
want to stay in that state too often?"

Marijuana isn't without risks. The government classifies it as a
Schedule I drug, meaning it has a high tendency for abuse.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse says marijuana can impair
coordination, and the center cites studies that show marijuana smoke
contains carcinogens that can cause some of the same respiratory
problems as those suffered by tobacco smokers.

There is one football league where players are not tested for
marijuana-the Canadian Football League. Tad Kornegay, a linebacker
with the Saskatchewan Roughriders says at least half of his teammates
are open about smoking pot. "They say they do it for stress, and
because they feel like they don't hurt as bad," he says. "Nobody
comes to practice high."

Tony Villani, a trainer who has worked with 70 NFL prospects over the
past eight years, says he hasn't seen any difference in the on-field
work habits of players who admit to smoking pot. "There's no
correlation," he says.