Football season is upon us, and in the coming weeks the media will cover every aspect of the multi-billion dollar league and it’s roster of well-compensated players, and their off-the-field antics.

On the field they take hit after hit, but despite the discovery that cannabis helps with pain and brain damage caused by the sport, the league continues to enforce its zero-tolerance policy when it comes to marijuana use.

Secretly NFL executives want to do away with drug testing a recent report claims. Yet players continue to face suspension for toking during the season, but perhaps for not much longer.

“As more prominent players serve suspensions for marijuana-related offenses, team owners will be forced to balance the league’s archaic law on substance abuse with the desire to sell tickets and win games,” writes John Dudley in a recent column.  

Dudley believes marijuana will become the next major bargaining issue in the NFL by 2020 when the current player's agreement expires.  With marijuana now receiving upward support from players and executives, perhaps the NFL will do better than the DEA and rethink its position on the plant.

Former players have also been outspoken on the issue, such as Eugene Monroe, the Baltimore Ravens player who was released from the team, in part, he said, because of his marijuana activism.

“What I noticed was that former players would openly speak about their experiences being addicted to opioids that they were prescribed by their team doctors,” Monroe told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric.  

Players are regularly prescribed addictive pain relievers even though they would rather have cannabis as an alternative.