Now that more active NFL players are risking their livelihood by educating themselves on managing pain relief and standing up for its use, it’s only right that more former players speak up about their cannabis use. Retired NFL quarterback Jake Plummer, who played with the Arizona Cardinals, Denver Broncos, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers during his 10-year career (1997–2007), wants the world to know that cannabis is curing his pain.
“I had pain. That’s why I left the game after 10 years,” Plummer told Bleacher Report. “It was just the beatdown. Having to take anti-inflammatories all year to get through the season. I didn’t like the way my body was feeling.”
Plummer explains that the most severe pain is in his throwing shoulder, lower back, and hips. At one point, he tore both hip labrums, which led to major surgery and weeks of not walking. A doctor prescribed Plummer painkillers and taking them ultimately put more intense pain in his body than a 300-pound linebacker slamming him to the floor.
Plummer looked into alternatives and found that Charlotte’s Web, a CBD-dominant sativa strain created by the Stanley Brothers, has gained popularity as an option for treating seizures as well as a range of other medical conditions and features almost no psychoactive effects. A former teammate introduced Plummer to the pain reliever, which changed his views on marijuana consumers.
“I thought, ‘Wow. They’re not dumb. They’re not criminals. They are intelligent, polite, and nice,’” he says. “I knew there was a misconception about what a user was.”
Along with current players Eugene Monroe and Derrick Morgan, and retired ones like Ricky Williams and Leonard Marshall, Plummer is one of the leading advocates for the medical marijuana movement. With the NFL season about to begin we can only hope that more NFL players, both past and present, speak more about legalizing cannabis as an alternative to dangerous and addictive prescription painkillers.
