Super Bowl Champ’s Fight for Cannabis: ‘Opioids Are Killing Athletes’
“Cannabis is medicine and a viable, safe alternative to opioids.”
Marvin Washington knows pain.
Not the kind that comes and goes. The kind that lingers. The kind that burrows deep into your body and settles in for the long haul. The kind that every former NFL player knows far too well.
For 11 seasons, Washington lined up against the best—a relentless defensive end for the New York Jets, Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers. A force on the field, smashing through offensive lines, chasing down quarterbacks, absorbing hit after hit after hit. And he played through it all.
Because that’s what you do in the NFL.
You get hurt. You take something for the pain. You get back out there.
And for decades, that “something” was opioids.
It was pills in the trainer’s room, pills in your locker, pills before practice, before games, before bed. It was normal. Until it wasn’t. Until guys started needing them just to function. Until guys started losing everything to addiction. Until some of them didn’t make it out at all.
Washington saw it happening in real-time. And he knew there had to be a better way.
The NFL’s Unspoken Epidemic
“The short answer is yes,” Washington says when asked if sports are finally shifting away from opioids. “Between all of the expos, conventions and panels that are happening, former athletes, mostly led by cannabis athletes, have brought this issue to the mainstream. It’s been covered by mainstream media publications, and it has made all leagues at all levels aware of the opioid issue with athletes and society in general.”
But awareness doesn’t always mean action.
Even today, painkillers remain the default prescription for pro athletes, even as the consequences become impossible to ignore. The body count is real. So is the devastation.
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