Professional Athletics and Marijuana in America

Bob McFlurry with Sports

So maybe you’ve heard that Jaqua Parker was arrested for possession of marijuana during training camp a day or so ago.  Apparently Todd Herreman’s was driving and there was two young ladies were also in tow when the car was stopped by police.

Now I won’t get into how I think Pot should be decriminalized (which it is in some areas of the U.S) or legalized, but would like to talk about two issues that this situation brings to mind.

1) Juqa Parker made a mistake and probably the only mistake he made was getting caught.  I’ve listened to a lot of 610 WIP over the last couple days with people calling in to bitch and complain about why these professional athletes think they are above the law or don’t have to follow the rules or because they make millions of dollars they should be more responsible.  You know what, I don’t buy that.  The guy smoked some pot, took the edge off of what was probably a tough day at camp.  How many people go to Happy Hour after work to take the edge off every day? Millions? I don’t see Parker’s actions any different than what goes on every day in America other than the fact that marijuana relaxes you and you wake up the next day without a hangover.

And you can claim that these athletes make millions of dollars and with more money comes more responsibility and they should behave better or whatever but I’m really not buying that either.  I remember football camp, it sucked.  You’re out in the heat all day with 20 pounds of equipment on running around doing drill’s, sprint’s, long distance runs, begging for a water break and the coaches are on your ass the whole time. Waking up every day with your muscles sore as shit, dragging your ass to film and meetings, expected to know where you’re supposed to be at all times on every conceivable formation as well as the guy next to you.

Now imagine that it’s not High School anymore and you’re expected to do pretty much super human things everyday, fighting for roster position with all the other Alpha Males and the weight of a championship hungry city on your back.  Like I said some people need to take the edge off and football players are no exception.  Alcohol is pretty much out of the question at training camp unless you’re Maurice Clarrett so what do you do?  Play Madden?

2) Football players are not idiots.  There’s a bigger issue than Juqa Parker getting caught with weed by the police here. It’s the fact that he had weed on him at all.  Why would a player, being apprised of all the rules knowingly and willingly be (allegedly) smoking pot if the league is drug testing.  Now I’m not talking about being Ricky Williams stupid about the mary jane but by most medical accounts marijuana stays in your system for about a month. So I’m going to guess players get tested at the beginning of training camp and I’m not sure what happens after that.  But i know Corell Buckhalter and other Eagles players got detained for allegedly smoking weed on South Street back in 2001 during the season but no one ever tested positive. And there’s been countless other players I’ve seen or heard been vilified on ESPN or wherever for partaking in something that 90% of people have at least tried in their lives.

This leads me to believe that it’s probably pretty naive to think that the Ganja isn’t prevalent in the NFL and probably most other Major sports. Either the players that get caught are just plain stupid for failing a drug test or they are caught by the police with Pot, suggesting they were smoking pot, however, smart enough to avoid testing positive for it.

Whatever the case, it’s not the end of the world. I think that marijuana should  be legal and taxed the shit out of by the government instead of spending Billions of dollars futilely trying to stop it. Of course that’s not up to me and neither is the suspension Juqa Parker could be facing but gimme a break, is it so bad?  Did he kill anyone? Did he have dogs fight each other to the death?

The same people calling into 610 WIP bitching about this are the same people who are going to go in half wasted tomorrow to work. Anyone see the irony here?  Double Standard much? No matter what your job is or how much money you make a job can be stressful. Apples to Apples, what’s the difference?
Internet. Download Managers