NFL drug abuse allegations

Devizier

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Probably merits a thread.

The document alleges the amount of drugs doled out by NFL teams, the careless handling of the drugs, and a callous attitude toward laws governing how the treatments should be distributed. Here’s the description of an email from the Minnesota Vikings’ head trainer scolding his staff for “week 17's fiasco,” which included an entire missing bottle of drugs. The DEA surprised six teams in 2014 with spot inspections; the lawsuit alleges a DEA employee tipped the teams off before the shakedowns. The lawsuit also alleges that teams repeatedly ignored DEA guidance about the transport and security of controlled substances.
The document contains plaintiffs from all 32 NFL teams. Several of the plaintiffs say that they “received and consumed enormous quantities of pain-numbing and anti-inflammatory medications,” without being informed about what they were being given or warned of the side effects.
Stories and specific details in the link.
 

mauf

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Um, it's the complaint in a lawsuit, which is the very definition of a one-sided story. Unsurprisingly, Gawker/Deadspin doesn't appear to have done much in the way of journalism, beyond getting their hands on the unredacted complaint. (I broke my usual rule and clicked on the link in the OP.)

None of us will be surprised if it turns out the NFL has a problem with opioids; hell, I'll be surprised if it turns out they don't. A few emails taken out of context doesn't tell us anything we couldn't already have surmised; the rest of the allegations, in time, may or may not be corroborated.
 

Dummy Hoy

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Am I not allowed to read an article and that pops up on this website? Am I not allowed to comment on it? The NFL is the biggest sporting league in this country and is intrinsically tied into this nation and its values...I'm comfortable getting involved with the conversation. My timing is nothing more than just timing. You think I have this on RSS feed?

The league and its teams have demonstrated very little concern for the long term health of its players, and this is more eveidence of that. It's gross and reprehensible.

I'm not judging anyone else who enjoys the product. No clue why this set off your snark meter.

Edit: and Maufman makes a good point. I've allowed this story to support previous allegations I've heard and fit in with my own view and narrative. I think in the end it will show that the league and teams have done as the lawsuit alleges, but I'll recognize the source.
 

Dummy Hoy

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And then I followed up with a more substantive post, which I should have opened with. Sorry to have offended.

And I didn't realize "you have a rule" in the soccer forum. And I'm the self righteous one?
 

Buck Showalter

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Honestly - it's great that the information has emerged, but is anyone surprised?

From painkillers to PEDs (which is rampant in the NFL) --- these items are utilized as frequent as pre-game tape on the players ankles.
 

NoXInNixon

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These are all grown men. I presume that no one is forcing them to take these drugs. They have voluntarily chosen a job which is virtually guaranteed to cause permanent serious damage to their bodies. Even the worst paid are compensated well above the country's median income. If at any point they find the risks not worth the reward, they have the option to walk away, as players are increasingly doing.

For whom am I supposed to feel bad?
 

Average Reds

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These are all grown men. I presume that no one is forcing them to take these drugs. They have voluntarily chosen a job which is virtually guaranteed to cause permanent serious damage to their bodies. Even the worst paid are compensated well above the country's median income. If at any point they find the risks not worth the reward, they have the option to walk away, as players are increasingly doing.

For whom am I supposed to feel bad?
Your contempt for NFL players is palpable. Even if justified, that doesn't excuse the league/teams if the allegations are proven to be true.

As an aside, I absolutely believe that as a practical matter, the majority of players are forced to take whatever painkillers are shoved in front of them.
 

Marciano490

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Your contempt for NFL players is palpable. Even if justified, that doesn't excuse the league/teams if the allegations are proven to be true.

As an aside, I absolutely believe that as a practical matter, the majority of players are forced to take whatever painkillers are shoved in front of them.
Exactly. Both by the demands of their own bodies and the need to get back on the field. One of traumatic pain - a break, a tear is bad. But, it's that daily in your bones, chewing, standing up, lying down, holding a phone to your ear pain that really saps your soul.
 

Captaincoop

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Your contempt for NFL players is palpable. Even if justified, that doesn't excuse the league/teams if the allegations are proven to be true.

As an aside, I absolutely believe that as a practical matter, the majority of players are forced to take whatever painkillers are shoved in front of them.
The players are willing participants in the PED and painkiller abuse. The owners are reprehensible jerks with no regard for the health or safety of the players.

Why are these mutually exclusive opinions?

Everyone is right here.
 

Marciano490

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The players are willing participants in the PED and painkiller abuse. The owners are reprehensible jerks with no regard for the health or safety of the players.

Why are these mutually exclusive opinions?

Everyone is right here.
There are lots of ways the billionaire owners could give up a negligible amount of money to make the game and treatment for the players a lot safer. It's hard to find moral equivalency between what a bunch of uber wealthy guys want to do and what a different group, many of whom are without other viable means of providing for themselves or families, feel forced to do.
 

fairlee76

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Don't feel bad for anyone. Feel outraged that the culture of pro football has devolved to the point where this type of behavior is the norm. And I highly doubt that you'd feel the same about the "walk away" argument if 1) this was happening in your profession and 2) you had spent your entire life up until this point training to enter said profession.

And what Marciano said.
 

Captaincoop

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There are lots of ways the billionaire owners could give up a negligible amount of money to make the game and treatment for the players a lot safer. It's hard to find moral equivalency between what a bunch of uber wealthy guys want to do and what a different group, many of whom are without other viable means of providing for themselves or families, feel forced to do.
Athletes are willing to take potentially dangerous health risks because the financial rewards they expect are tremendous. If NFL players made what insurance salesmen make, players would be willing to say no to the pain, and the painkillers, and the PEDs, and take a regular job to provide for themselves and their families. Playing in the NFL isn't about feeding your family, it's about getting rich. The minimum salary in the league is $450K. That's not feeding your family money.
 

joe dokes

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These are all grown men. I presume that no one is forcing them to take these drugs. They have voluntarily chosen a job which is virtually guaranteed to cause permanent serious damage to their bodies. Even the worst paid are compensated well above the country's median income. If at any point they find the risks not worth the reward, they have the option to walk away, as players are increasingly doing.

For whom am I supposed to feel bad?


Not forced. Just told "play or be cut." And not told that it might be illegal for the guy with the needle to give you the shot because he's a trainer not a doctor. Or *that* shot in combination with that *other* shot might cause your kidney to explode. Or that you aren't supposed to have 750 Mgs of that stuff over the course of three days. No that's not "forced." But its something else that's bad.
 

Marciano490

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Athletes are willing to take potentially dangerous health risks because the financial rewards they expect are tremendous. If NFL players made what insurance salesmen make, players would be willing to say no to the pain, and the painkillers, and the PEDs, and take a regular job to provide for themselves and their families. Playing in the NFL isn't about feeding your family, it's about getting rich. The minimum salary in the league is $450K. That's not feeding your family money.
How big's your family, and how big's the hole they're in?
 

Average Reds

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Athletes are willing to take potentially dangerous health risks because the financial rewards they expect are tremendous. If NFL players made what insurance salesmen make, players would be willing to say no to the pain, and the painkillers, and the PEDs, and take a regular job to provide for themselves and their families. Playing in the NFL isn't about feeding your family, it's about getting rich. The minimum salary in the league is $450K. That's not feeding your family money.
Given that the average career is something like 3 years and most players walk away with injuries and without the skills to prepare them for the rest of their life, the money is really not that great.

I understand why it's hard to generate a lot of sympathy. But the average NFL player is basically treated like a piece of meat from high school on and then spit out at age 26.
 

Average Reds

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Not forced. Just told "play or be cut." And not told that it might be illegal for the guy with the needle to give you the shot because he's a trainer not a doctor. Or *that* shot in combination with that *other* shot might cause your kidney to explode. Or that you aren't supposed to have 750 Mgs of that stuff over the course of three days. No that's not "forced." But its something else that's bad.
It's basically the opposite of informed consent.
 

Captaincoop

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Given that the average career is something like 3 years and most players walk away with injuries and without the skills to prepare them for the rest of their life, the money is really not that great.

I understand why it's hard to generate a lot of sympathy. But the average NFL player is basically treated like a piece of meat from high school on and then spit out at age 26.

But guys aren't going into it to play for 3 years. Every one of them thinks they're going to have a 10+ year career and make millions. And some of them do just that.

I know a lot of these guys. They're not worthless dolts who can't do anything but play football or live on the street. They're choosing to take a shot at the money and they know what they're getting into.

None of that is to excuse the owners. But the players aren't just pawns either. They are making a choice.
 

Marciano490

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And how long is your career?
Well, yeah, as AR points out - 450k sounds like a lot of money, until you realize it's not a lifetime salary, but something that'll only last a few years.

And I disagree with Captaincoop. Most of these guys know what kind of careers they'll have by the time they reach the draft; they've been ranked, projected and turned over for a few years at that point. Yeah, there are Malcolm Butlers and there are delusional guys who think they'll still be the GOAT after going undrafted or not starting their rookie year, but that's not the majority.
 

joe dokes

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It's basically the opposite of informed consent.
Right. That, to me, is something they *haven't* signed up for. One could argue that you don't need to be a brain surgeon to understand the dangers of bashing your head 50 times a game. But that argument falls apart on the medicine side, if the team doctors and trainers are misusing medicine to get a player back onto the field. While its possible that a doctor said, "This is 5 fucktillion times the amount that I'm allowed to give you, and it might kill you, but the pain will go away" and the player said "go for it." That might reduce one's sympathy level for the player, but that's not enough (or shouldn't be enough) to keep the doc out of the medical field.
 

Average Reds

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But guys aren't going into it to play for 3 years. Every one of them thinks they're going to have a 10+ year career and make millions. And some of them do just that.

I know a lot of these guys. They're not worthless dolts who can't do anything but play football or live on the street. They're choosing to take a shot at the money and they know what they're getting into.

None of that is to excuse the owners. But the players aren't just pawns either. They are making a choice.
I know a few players myself, including one current NFL player who is marrying into my family and who is quite the opposite of a worthless dolt.

The vast majority of the players fit the description I gave earlier.
 

Captaincoop

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Well, yeah, as AR points out - 450k sounds like a lot of money, until you realize it's not a lifetime salary, but something that'll only last a few years.

And I disagree with Captaincoop. Most of these guys know what kind of careers they'll have by the time they reach the draft; they've been ranked, projected and turned over for a few years at that point. Yeah, there are Malcolm Butlers and there are delusional guys who think they'll still be the GOAT after going undrafted or not starting their rookie year, but that's not the majority.
I hate being in a position of defending the culture of the NFL, and I'm not doing that.

But there seems to be an assumption here that the players are helpless morons, which is not usually the case. They are not unaware of the culture, they experienced something similar in their college programs.

The draft projections show them where they're likely to be drafted. Most all of these guys still think they can defy the odds and play their way into an NFL career. They aren't going into it thinking "well, I guess my ceiling is taxi-squad guy." That is not how elite athletes think, at least not in my experience.

And again, the idea that they are being forced into taking health risks to feed their family is just false. If these guys had to take PEDs and painkillers to hang on to a $30K/year job selling cars at the local car dealership, do you think they'd do that? I don't. Even though that $30K/year job would feed them and their family, and provide health benefits, etc. They are taking the risks because the upside of playing in the NFL (at least the perceived upside) is massive.
 

Average Reds

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It's interesting that you keep accusing others of painting the players as helpless morons or worthless dolts - which no one is doing - while simultaneously insisting that these players have no idea what the reality of NFL life is like because they all think they are going to be mega-millionaires.

I believe that most players go into the NFL fully aware of the statistics in terms of how long the average career is and what kind of injuries they face. And yes, they play anyway.

They play because from the age of 8 or 9 years old, this is what they have trained for. Unfortunately, realizing their dream means that they often don't receive the kind of training in college to prepare them for life after football. It also means that they are part of a system that does not look out for their health. In fact, the system pressures them to take steps that are often detrimental to their long term health and does a terrible job of informing them of the risks while threatening them with the near-certain loss of employment if they don't do what is asked.

None of what I have just written paints players as helpless morons or worthless dolts.
 

Marciano490

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It's interesting that you keep accusing others of painting the players as helpless morons or worthless dolts - which no one is doing - while simultaneously insisting that these players have no idea what the reality of NFL life is like because they all think they are going to be mega-millionaires.

I believe that most players go into the NFL fully aware of the statistics in terms of how long the average career is and what kind of injuries they face. And yes, they play anyway.

They play because from the age of 8 or 9 years old, this is what they have trained for. Unfortunately, realizing their dream means that they often don't receive the kind of training in college to prepare them for life after football. It also means that they are part of a system that does not look out for their health. In fact, the system pressures them to take steps that are often detrimental to their long term health and does a terrible job of informing them of the risks while threatening them with the near-certain loss of employment if they don't do what is asked.

None of what I have just written paints players as helpless morons or worthless dolts.
Beyond that, don't underestimate how easy it is to normalize your circumstances when they're your day in and day out reality. I've been in gyms with rampant PED abuse, and it becomes a way of life for those guys; nobody's thinking of the effect of the next 3cc shot on their liver. Same with violence - either recreational or athletic. It's not a matter of intelligence, it's an issue of normalization. And, I agree that elite athletes have a certain mindset regarding their ability and greatness, but that doesn't preclude honest self assessment, and the way football is structured with ratings for high schoolers, draft classes for colleges, rankings for college programs, combine figures, draft boards, etc., these guys know what their future is whether they admit it daily or not.
 

Captaincoop

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It's interesting that you keep accusing others of painting the players as helpless morons or worthless dolts - which no one is doing - while simultaneously insisting that these players have no idea what the reality of NFL life is like because they all think they are going to be mega-millionaires.

I believe that most players go into the NFL fully aware of the statistics in terms of how long the average career is and what kind of injuries they face. And yes, they play anyway.

They play because from the age of 8 or 9 years old, this is what they have trained for. Unfortunately, realizing their dream means that they often don't receive the kind of training in college to prepare them for life after football. It also means that they are part of a system that does not look out for their health. In fact, the system pressures them to take steps that are often detrimental to their long term health and does a terrible job of informing them of the risks while threatening them with the near-certain loss of employment if they don't do what is asked.

None of what I have just written paints players as helpless morons or worthless dolts.

I agree with all of that. Like I said, it's a choice they're making. And the NFL and the owners are reprehensible for creating a culture that requires that choice.

edit: And I agree with Marciano about how normal the PEDs and painkillers are even prior to the NFL. But that still doesn't entirely excuse players from partaking.
 

shaggydog2000

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The main reason for the DEA investigation was not player safety, but team doctors were transporting restricted drugs across state lines to places where they were not licensed to dispense and then dispensing them. That is pretty illegal. Also, they were breaking drug storage laws in their home states by not securing, tracking, and perscribing opiates properly. Also illegal. It's not that they care how many of these drugs the players were taking, or think the doses were excessive, just that the Doctors and trainers are behaving like they did 40 years ago, and it wasn't legal then either.

The players separately are suing about their safety being endangered by the teams prescribing practices. Even the best educated professionals rely on their Doctors to tell them what is safe and not safe in terms of drugs, interactions, and dosing. Even one Doctor will rely on another to tell them what is safe and not in cases that are outside their expertise. That these team Doctors were disregarding that responsibility is pretty serious if true. It doesn't matter how genius or stupid the patient was, or their career choice, withholding information, not getting proper consent, and making recommendations that are beyond best practice are serious violations.