Two former NFL players describe prescription drug practices

Two former NFL players describe prescription drug practices
By Sally Jenkins and Rick Maese November 27

Former NFL linebacker Scott Fujita said he still has the pill bottle, nearly the size of a soda can. “It was the craziest big pill bottle you’ve ever seen,” he said. It was given to him by an NFL team physician to treat a single knee injury, yet it contained, he estimates, somewhere between 125 and 150 pills of Percocet, the addictive oxycodone-based painkiller. On another NFL team Fujita played for, he says, an assistant trainer passed out narcotic painkillers in unlabeled small manila envelopes before games to whoever raised a hand.

Ex-offensive lineman Rex Hadnot described the moment he joined a class action accusing NFL teams of misusing narcotics and other pain medications to keep players on the field despite injuries. It was the day a lawyer explained to him that the powerful anti-inflammatory Toradol should not be used for more than five days under Food and Drug Administration guidelines, at risk of kidney damage. By Hadnot’s estimate, medical staffs from four NFL teams gave him Toradol injections or Toradol pills virtually once a week — for nine years, from 2004 until he retired after the 2012 season, without explaining potential side effects.

“Sometimes I got the shot and the pill,” he said.

Continued here http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...fb8768-768c-11e4-bd1b-03009bd3e984_story.html

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Pump them full of all the opiates they can swallow, but they wont let them use cannabis.. what a bad joke.

neversickanymore said:

Pump them full of all the opiates they can swallow, but they wont let them use cannabis.. what a bad joke.

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That's America for ya. Our rule of law is now just a bad joke. Convoluted as shit and malleable to whatever lobbying interest has the most money and political connections.

Football fans are just as responsible as team doctors and coaches. For every player who goes down injured there are 20 others who would play with an injury trying hard to replace them. Heroes are forgotten quickly, especially ones who are perceived as soft or injury prone. Truthfully the obscenely large salaries of most NFL players more than offsets a life time of arthritis or dementia. Even if that lifetime is slightly less than the average man

^I would disagree that it's worth it. Nearly every one of them has said it wasn't worth it, that their lives/families are worth more to them than the salary (isn't it a thing that they go broke anyway?). Hell, the regular stream of guys committing suicide kinda makes the case that it's pretty bad.

Felonious Monk said:

^I would disagree that it's worth it. Nearly every one of them has said it wasn't worth it, that their lives/families are worth more to them than the salary (isn't it a thing that they go broke anyway?). Hell, the regular stream of guys committing suicide kinda makes the case that it's pretty bad.

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It's not like they were press-ganged into it or unaware of the dangers, they chose the career and what comes with it, good and bad.

I dont think players are being 100% truthful when they say it isnt worth it. Its the standard line for those players who are old and/or broken down but rarely do you hear a healthy, active player say the risks outweigh the benefits. Like OTW said, when their check comes, it sure seems worth it.

Felonious Monk said:

^I would disagree that it's worth it. Nearly every one of them has said it wasn't worth it, that their lives/families are worth more to them than the salary (isn't it a thing that they go broke anyway?). Hell, the regular stream of guys committing suicide kinda makes the case that it's pretty bad.

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Hard to imagine having so much money and your life not being perfect but yes it seems not tot turn out too well for many of them, despite the fame and money. Careful what you wish for.

Which team has walk on try outs.

Plenty during the 1987 strikes.

Are football fans really to blame as well?
I guess so, in the way that Americans who buy Mexican brick weed are to blame for cartel violence.

25I_am_so_wonderfu said:

That's America for ya. Our rule of law is now just a bad joke. Convoluted as shit and malleable to whatever lobbying interest has the most money and political connections.

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Americas fault? How bout the reckless trainers and everyone who looked the other way just to start with.

Kittycat5 said:

I dont think players are being 100% truthful when they say it isnt worth it. Its the standard line for those players who are old and/or broken down but rarely do you hear a healthy, active player say the risks outweigh the benefits. Like OTW said, when their check comes, it sure seems worth it.

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Exactly.

The NFL is crazy , you just kind of have to enjoy the show (kind of like life?).

They don't even have growth hormone tests. The guys with good contracts and their buddies have doctors (or themselves) administer growth hormones and a small amount of steroids(also tested).

Baseball fans grew wary of guys who looked like Bonds and McGuire... 70% of football players do lol! they must just be husky. (baseball players are pretty big these days too! , Basketball players too. (Seems like LeBron, Blake Griffin etc... seem to always lose weight in the off-season when giving their bodies a break)

Quite a few claim ADHD so they can take adderall/etc...
NSAID etc... injections
Opiates...

The game itself consists of crashing the human body in ways not structurally supported. It wouldn't be quite at this level without the medicine.


But it's the most entertaining sport imo. Awesome athletes, violence, and strategic play-calling / roster etc...

The worst thing is that this shit percolates down to kids playing the sports and doing this shit too. When I was in HS, our very good rugby team, was actually just kids on oxy and adderal.

There are so many elements to it, i mean on one hand fans want to see more action bigger more athletic dudes and humans are really only designed for so much...a geckos tail gets torn off and it grows a new one. We suffer any major trauma esp to spinal cord and that's it. You're fucked.

The players know the deal. Its the top of the top and a lot of the players and coaches ect will do anything for that W. They basically sell their bodies to be beaten up lol

I worked in a gym that had a few ravens who worked out and trained there and they would really work out like monsters, but for what they get paid who can say if its worth it all.

This is a common practice in just about all major sports to some degree. I'm sure the NHL and mlb do the same shit, and like I said the players know the deal.

I have always hated football with a passion, but now im thinking, "maybe I should have become a football player." These players are beating the shit out of each other for money, who gives a shit if they use drugs? they are destroying their bodies anyway, why not go all the way?