The NFL Drug Culture
With all the recent coverage on drugs in the NFL – both “legal” and illegal – I’ve been getting a lot of media inquiries coming in about my personal experiences from playing back in the late 70′s and early 80′s. Like a lot of things from the past, many have now come to roost as part of NFL culture today. Painkillers and Novocaine shots were accepted treatments in the locker rooms of my day and it’s a small wonder that the young players today seem to feel that they’re expected to do whatever it takes to make themselves worth those big salaries they get from the NFL. You reap what you sow and the steroid problem is at least as much a consequence of the NFL’s drug culture over the decades as it is the product of the competitiveness among today’s players themselves. What did they think would happen?
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Here’s one recent article from USA Today about another drug investigation (108 prescriptions?!!):
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Report: DEA investigating Chargers, Padres doctors
Chao’s office was searched, as were those of doctors for the San Diego Padres baseball team.
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A day after telling The San Diego Union-Tribune there was nothing to indicate Chao used the unnamed medications for himself, Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Amy Roderick declined to answer questions Thursday about whether some of the medications might have gone to Chargers players.
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“This is an ongoing investigation, and it will take time to go through the data retrieved,” Roderick said.
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Read the rest of the article on USA Today- click HERE.
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Tim Sullivan from the San Diego Union Tribune sent me some questions recently:
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Dear Dave:
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Do you have a contact who might be able to speak to the distribution of prescription medicine in the NFL, whether it is customarily done with a doctor’s authority or whether trainers have the latitude to distribute medicine? Also, I am interested in discussing addiction to pain medication that may develop from a career in the NFL.
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If you can guide me to the appropriate sources, I would be grateful.
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Best wishes,
Tim Sullivan
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Hi Tim -
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You ask a very interesting question. When I played (1975-80) it was easy to get just about whatever you wanted or needed to kill the pain. In fact, the Raiders doctor (Dr. Rosenfeld) gave me a handful of Percodan and suggested that I take them before a game (because of the herniated disc in my neck). However, I took them after the game and boy, was I glad I did that because if I had followed his medical advice, I wouldn’t have been able to play at all (let alone even stand up). Plus I would have been on film looking even worse! But he did give me the 25 or so pills out of his private stash because when he reached for them in his pocket while I was in the Hospital getting shots in my neck, his entire pack of pills dropped all over the floor. It was amazing to see this doctor on his hands and knees down on the floor trying to locate what seemed like 150 pills or more. It was pretty disgusting.
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The trainers always had easy access to pain medication. The Raiders had it in a drawer and the players could simply help themselves. In fact, our trainer, George Anderson, called himself the easter bunny because if you wanted speed on game day, he’d put some in your shoes in your locker. The problem was that George was also speeding (and sweating) so much himself that if he taped your ankles, he’d always end up taping them too tight!
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In the NFL, the standard was that if you took pain medication or speed for a game, it was OK. Off the field, we were on our own as far as pain control but we as players learned from the NFL medical staff and trainers.
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If you like, I would be happy to speak with you but there were no rules when it came to pain medication and the NFL. It was always win at any cost!
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And of course, any NFL trainer or Doctor will still always tell you what Roger Goodell would like them to say. Remember the NFL-paid “Mild” Traumatic Brain Committee Co-Chair Dr. Ira Casson also known as Dr. NO?
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The Raiders had a doctor named Dr. Fink whose nickname was “Needles” because it was his job to give players a shot with a needle wherever it hurt. There was a player that needed his cast removed from his arm and he had to go to Needles’ real estate office (!) to get his cast removed because Needles didn’t have a real doctor’s office! To this day, I still wonder if Fink was even a real licensed medical doctor? (EDITOR’S NOTE: He was an internist.) Some medical treatment.
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Dave at Home - photo by Aaron Hewitt
Regards
Dave & Heidi Pear
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Dear Dave: Do you have a contact who might be able to speak to the distribution of prescription medicine in the NFL, whether it is customarily done with a doctor's authority or whether trainers have the latitude to distribute medicine. Also, I am interested in discussing addiction to pain medication that may develop from a career in the NFL. If you can guide me to the appropriate sources, I would be grateful. Best wishes, Tim Sullivan San Diego Union-Tribune
Gerry Allen
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:07 am #
Dave -
I really appreciate your website. Keeps me updated.
If I can be of any assistance, please advise.
Gerry Allen
Running Back
Baltimore Colts & Washington Redskins
1966 – 1970
Greg Davis
July 23rd, 2010 at 6:38 am #
Pretty Funny… They want to open this can of worms?
I broke my shoulder in San Diego after a blocked Field Goal, I suck it up for a week because Carney is on IR and I know there’s no way two kickers are going on IR. I got a shot on the sideline. I’d have to look at my Workers’ Comp Deposition to see what it was. They did an MRI and the team doctor tells me after a couple of days that if I were a QB, they might want to go in but since I’m a kicker, there’s really no need; it will just be a little “uncomfortable.”
At the end of the season, my exit physical consisted of, ” How ya feelin’?!! What are you going to do this off season?” That was in 1997 – I’m still waiting for the surgery on that shoulder in 2010. Thirteen years and guess what? It’s still “just a Little uncomfortable.” If you really want to get down to the nuts-and-bolts, take a look at the incoming Physical compared to the outgoing, especially if your contract was up. I am now in Year 3 of my Worker’s Comp case. I think it’s laughable how we had the Mantra of “Are you hurt?”, or “Are you injured?” drilled into us and then they expect us to live the rest of our lives like that. It’s the equivalent of taking a NASCAR race car off the circuit after blowing the engine and ripping out 2 – 4 gears on the transmission and telling you to use it as the family car. Everybody walks by and admires the paint and shiny stickers and wonders why you’re complaining about not being able to get out of your driveway.
Painkillers… Yeah, talk about focusing on the penny on the train tracks!
Greg Davis
Atlanta Falcons, New England Patriots, Arizona Cardinals
Minnesota Vikings, San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders
1987 – 1998
Jeff Hatch
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:52 am #
As a former player myself and now a recovering alcoholic/addict, I was very happy to read how open you were in reference to the drug culture as it existed in your time as a player. I also read Tim’s question to you and his desire for some dialogue regarding an opiate addiction developing during a playing career. To that particular inquiry, I can relate. I suffered through multiple back surgeries in my short career culminating in a fusion in 2005. By the time I got that fusion, I was a hardcore opiate addict. It seemed OK to me because it was “what I had to do to play.” And as any of us know, we always did whatever we had to do to play the game we loved. Since I got sober 4 and a half years ago, I have devoted my life to trying to help others get sober and – more specifically – to help athletes do it. My strongest desire is to help as many of my brothers as I can. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with players from all the major sports leagues, some with positive outcomes, some not. I don’t do this for a living, I do it because I am called.
The point of my writing is to reach out through you to Tim, and any other brothers who are struggling. You are not alone. Please pass on my contact information and if I can be of service, I will be.
All my best, Dave. And thank you for your work. IT IS APPRECIATED!
Sincerely,
Jeff Hatch
New York Giants
2002 – 2005
jeff@artbyhatch.com
Joe Tabor
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:31 am #
Hi Dave,
Speaking from experience the NFL is just a reflection of our culture as a whole. A microcosm so to speak. Talk to someone who has had any dealings with corporate America over a length of time at any level and you see the Faustian decisions that come into play. The other way to look at it is to survive you must play or work injured or be replaced.
The more I reflect on the revelations as of late on the NCAA and the NFL, the more difficult it has become to settle in as an informed spectator… indeed the terms are mutually exclusive.
Take care
Yeoman
Joe Tabor
University of Washington Huskies 1972 – 1973
RobertinSeattle
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:05 am #
The League’s two-faced hypocrisy is the main reason there’s never been a serious drug policy in place. We can pump you full of whatever it takes so you can keep playing on the field but it’s not our problem if you get addicted off the field or in retirement. And heaven forbid if you should get caught with marijuana! Why – what kind of example do you think you’re setting for the kids who are watching?
And we’ll be sure to look the other way when a player comes back from the off season (or just gets drafted from college) and miraculously sports an extra 50 lbs of muscle from one summer of “working out.” Miracles do happen. And pigs fly.
The NFLPA isn’t completely innocent on this either. Agents like Condon benefit directly from having players who can play longer and harder no matter what the cost. After all, it’s a money game and there will always be more new bodies to replace this year’s worn out models. And while we’re at it, screw ‘em on their disability benefits – we don’t need them any more so why waste money paying them anything.
Greg Davis
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:37 pm #
Well said, Robert.
Greg Davis