Chandler Jones Situation Illustrates The NFL’s True M.O.

The Chronicles Of NFL Mismanagement

If you haven’t been following the NFL closely, you may have missed a juicy little nugget about the New England Patriots and Chandler Jones. Two days ago, various media outlets caught wind that defensive star Chandler Jones was admitted to a local New England hospital as a result of a bad reaction to synthetic marijuana. As the days have passed this story has garnered more and more attention with what could be described as a potential “cover-up” involving the local police department and Jones himself. Excuse me if I’m a little blunt, no pun intended, but this so called “cover-up” is such an overdramatic farce. To me a “cover-up” involves something along the lines of the J.F.K assassination. More over, the true story here reveals more about the way the NFL operates than any individual player or team.

Lets think about why Chandler Jones found himself in this situation. Why would any person, professional athlete or not, subject themselves to synthetic marijuana? For starters, while the authentic product (pot) is completely banned by the NFL, just ask Josh Gordon, synthetic marijuana is bit more tricky in terms of legality. Throughout the United States, numerous states are beginning to introduce voting propositions that would legalize marijuana to various different extents. From decriminalization to flat out legalization, society’s views on the natural growing plant seem to be changing more than ever before. This is not the case in the NFL. Any player, and there has been no shortage, caught using marijuana has subjected themselves to fines and suspensions. From Le’Veon Bell to the aforementioned Gordon, this pandemic is hitting superstar players and could be single handedly affecting the outcome of games that these suspended players should’ve participated in.

Although the new Will Smith movie “Concussion” wasn’t exactly the box-office hit it was supposed to be, the conversation of player safety in terms of head injuries and the effects of playing a career in the NFL, has at least garnered a little more national attention. It doesn’t take a juliard trained physician to see that playing just one season in the NFL has a detrimental toll on the players bodies. Anybody with a computer can hop on google and search through article after article about former players who are loaded up on all kinds of painkillers to deal with the physical demands the job has. Enter marijuana. Various studies have concluded that marijuana can act as a much safer, non addictive form of painkilling for these players, among other things. It’s almost amazing to me how just about every new and updated study thats performed on the properties of pot reveal its natural and safe healing qualities.

But no, not in the NFL. That’s not for Roger Goodell and the fat-cats who run the league like the puppet master in that old N’Sync video. (Look it up if you don’t know what I’m talking about) Herein lies the true modus operandi of the NFL. By taking such an asinine stand on marijuana in the league, they have done nothing if not created an outlet for stories like Chandler Jones’s to happen. Perhaps if Jones wasn’t trying to circumvent the random league testing, he wouldn’t have subjected himself to running inside of the police office screaming that he was being chased by a dragon. Now Game of Thrones doesn’t start until late April, but this can’t be good publicity for the NFL. This time, however, the NFL can’t point the finger at anyone else but themselves. This entire situation was born out of the ludicrous viewpoint the NFL has on marijuana. What they are essentially telling us is that it’s completely okay for players to use dangerous and very addictive painkillers to treat the various ailments that players suffer throughout the course of the season, yet a player like Josh Gordon has become the poster child for unacceptable behavior by failing a test for marijuana use. And here all this time I always believed that Gary Bettman was the worst commissioner in sports, boy was I wrong about that.

The worst part about all of this is that for the most part nothing will be done about this harmful stance the NFL has decided to take. Real issues such as this one will be swept right under that big rug with the NFL shield on it, while ridiculous stories about the air pressure of footballs will dominate all of the airwaves and media reports. The fans have given the NFL unlimited amounts of power through the sheer amounts consumption of this product. We’ve all seen the stats of what it takes for advertisers to air commercials during the Super Bowl, further proof the NFL holds on this country.