POT STORY PUTS RIDER ON DEFENSIVE

Linebacker Quoted In Paper About Marijuana Use By Teammates

Comments attributed to Tad Kornegay about reported marijuana use by
his Saskatchewan Roughriders teammates were "mixed up" by one of
North America's pre-eminent newspapers, according to the veteran CFLer.

Kornegay was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story about marijuana
use by NFL prospects. The article, for which Kornegay was among
several players interviewed by reporter Aditi Kinkhabwal, reads in
part that "a linebacker with the Saskatchewan Roughriders says that
at least half of his teammates are open about smoking pot."

Kornegay is then quoted directly, saying: "They say they do it for
stress, and because they feel like they don't hurt as bad. . . .
Nobody comes to practice high."

Kornegay clarified those statements when reached Sunday at his
off-season home in New Jersey.

"I wasn't talking about the Saskatchewan Roughriders but she didn't
make it up," Kornegay said, who has spent five seasons in the CFL
with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Roughriders.

"Someone got mixed up a little bit and that's maybe why she didn't
quote me. She was right when she quoted me about stress."

Kornegay said they were speaking generally about athletes.

"I was talking about everyone -- from guys in the NBA to the NFL to
sports in general to people who hold 9-to-5 jobs and in the corporate
world," Kornegay said. "I wasn't talking about a particular team or
teammates. I was talking in a general sense."

When reached Sunday, a representative of the Wall Street Journal
declined to comment. The representative added that the Journal stands
by the story.

Kornegay, who recently re-signed with the Riders, knew those two
paragraphs were going to create a firestorm.

"I said those quotes but the way they were put together . . . I knew
people would think I was crazy talking about my team that way," said Kornegay."

Ken Miller, the Riders' head coach and vice-president of football
operations, talked with Kornegay on Sunday. Miller understood that
the linebacker's comments were taken out of context and were also
open to interpretation.

"The comment about half of his teammates smoking pot was not quoted,"
said Miller. "When he does talk about players, he's not talking about
CFL players necessarily. There are NFL players who smoke pot for
stress. There are comments that can be taken in a lot of different
ways about different leagues and multiple people. It's put together
in a way to be more sensational. I feel good about what he told me."

There isn't any drug testing in the CFL, which led the reporter to
broach that aspect of her story. The NFL does conduct drug tests and
marijuana is among its banned substances. Part of the story dealt
with medicinal marijuana and players smoking pot to ease some of
their chronic pain. Kornegay said he doesn't know if there are pot
smokers on the Riders.

"I don't smoke, so I wouldn't know," said Kornegay.

Miller added that marijuana use is not a problem with the Roughriders.

"Absolutely not," Miller said. "I'm not going to say for a fact the
nobody smokes marijuana because that would be silly. We've had some
peripheral people who have and who are no longer with us. That's
something that we are interested in and concerned about. It's not
something we would turn our head about and not look at."