Jake Plummer: Not a fan of Jerry Jones
As a small minority of NFL players begin to speak out about the potential pain-management benefits of medical marijuana, they have at least one former player in their corner: Jake Plummer.
Plummer, who split 10 seasons between the Arizona Cardinals and Denver Broncos, was on BSN Denver this week, advocating for the use of cannabis for NFL players. Plummer has sharp aches and pains, but he apparently has not fallen victim to some of the maladies, like depression and addiction to painkillers that have afflicted former teammates.
So he’s speaking out, and took aim at one man in particular.
“I have a hard time with it because everybody says, ‘Oh, poor NFL millionaires. Oh, you poor people.’ They don’t understand,” Plummer said. “Maybe they should have a little more to say about the owners that are billionaires, they’re not millionaires; they’re billionaires.
“Like Jerry Jones, who says it’s ‘absurd’ that there would be a link between brain trauma, football and CTE. Shame on him for saying that, that billionaire [expletive]. It’s the worst thing in the world for a guy like that to say. That’s where we’re sitting; grown-ass men are asked to go out there for millions of dollars—which, yeah, it’s a lot of money—bang themselves around and completely [mess] their lives over for their 40s and 50s. So yeah, poor football players is what I say. If you’re a grown-ass man, you should be allowed to make grown-ass decisions.”
At the NFL spring meetings in March, Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, said there is not enough evidence to say there is a link between football and concussions, and degenerative brain disease like CTE. Jones’ words came days after Jeff Miller, the league’s vice president of health and safety policy, acknowledged for the first time that there is.
Appearing at a discussion on Capitol Hill, Miller was asked by Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky if there is a link between football and diseases like CTE, and Miller replied, “The answer to that is certainly, yes.” (The league, of course, tried to walk Miller’s statement back almost as soon as he said it.)
And time and again, the brains of deceased players studied by researchers have shown evidence of varying degrees of CTE.
But back to Plummer.
The 41-year-old said he smokes CBD, or cannabidiol, daily to help deal with his post-football pains (he’s also undergone major hip surgery), and believes active players should be allowed to do the same, rather than lining up to take Percocet, Vicodin, and Toradol, all drugs that can often lead to addiction.
Currently, only two active NFL players have spoken out publicly to say that players should be allowed to use medical-grade marijuana to deal with their injuries: the Tennessee Titans’ Derrick Morgan and Eugene Monroe, who was released by the Baltimore Ravens shortly after sharing his opinion (the Ravens said his cut was a football decision only).
(Corrected: The Detroit Lions’ DeAndre Levy has also said recently that the issue of medical marijuana should be addressed.)
