A bunch of retired US football players are banding together to sue the NFL. Why? Because they claim the organization illegally gave them painkillers to ensure they would keep playing despite injuries. Unsurprisingly, the players say they had health problems (as well as addiction problems, duh) stemming from the drugs.
Here’s What Happened
In a recent complaint, lawyers claim that the NFL “intentionally, recklessly and negligently created and maintained a culture of drug misuse, substituting players’ health for profit.” The suit is seeking class-action status, with more than 500 ex-players signing up to join. But they’re not just seeking financial damages—the players are also hoping to push the NFL to “create a testing and monitoring program to help prevent addiction and health issues from the use of painkillers.”
The retired players include Richard Dent, Keith Van Horne and Jim McMahon—three members of the 1985 NFL champs the Chicago Bears. More than one player allege the doctors didn’t diagnose their major injuries, instead opting to give them drugs so they would keep playing despite their pain. Alarmingly, McMahon said he suffered a broken neck (!!) and ankle, but was “never told about those injuries by team doctors. Instead he received medications and returned to play.” Van Horne also claims he “played an entire season on a broken leg, and was not told about the injury for five years, during which time he was “fed a constant diet of pills to deal with the pain.'”
Some players say that after years of getting oodles and oodles of free pills and injections from team doctors, they retired as full-fledged addicts and only now are dealing with the resulting health effects (think kidney failure and similarly debilitating ailments). Akbar Gbajabiamila wrote about his experience getting hooked on Toradol in an article in 2012: “One veteran player looked at me and said, ‘Take a shot of that and you won’t feel a thing when you play.’ I jumped in line, and that was the beginning of my Toradol dependency. After my first shot (let it be known, I hate needles), I heard someone yell across the locker room, ‘Once you get on the T-train, you won’t get off.'”
The ironic thing is that other players have routinely been penalized (see Cleveland Browns receiver Josh Gordon, who was suspended for a full season) for opting to use marijuana to help manage their pain; weed is considered safer and less addictive than most of the meds named in the suit.
Who’s Really at Fault Here?
The controversy has been greeted with mixed feelings by former players and media types while some addiction experts believe that blaming the NFL is missing the point. “It is insane to think that the NFL or the NFL Players Association want their professional athletes addicted to painkillers,” says Richard Taite, CEO and Founder of Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center. “The real problem is when an athlete, due to legitimate pain, becomes so physically dependent on opioids that even when he’s no longer experiencing pain, he can’t stop taking them—not because he’s an addict, but because he has become physically dependent.”
The problem is that while addiction experts understand that players becoming dependent on opiates doesn’t spell a lifetime of addiction, many medical professionals do not. “An athlete in this situation needs a simple, four-to-five day medically-supervised detox, which can happen while they are preparing for next week’s game,” Taite explains. “It’s the responsibility of sports team doctors not only to monitor the long-term usage and be judicious with their prescriptions but also to educate themselves on drug dependence, titration and opioid detox protocols.”
Of course, even doctors will admit that their profession is notoriously undereducated when it comes to addiction. Wouldn’t it be nice if situations like these could serve as wake-up calls?
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