NEWS
Retired NFL Stars Are Celebrating the Super Bowl With a Weed-Fueled Golf Tournament
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The NFL still blocks cannabis companies from advertising during the Super Bowl, so athlete-founded weed companies have to get creative with their promotion.
Published on February 9, 2023

Former NFL player Jim McMahon is hosting a weed-friendly celebrity golf tournament on Super Bowl weekend to help promote his cannabis brand.

McMahon is hosting the Gridiron Greats Celebrity Golf Classic along with his two business partners and NFL league-mates Kyle Turley and Eben Britton. The tournament will take place on February 10 at the Anthem Golf and Country Club in Arizona, not far from the arena where the Super Bowl will be held two days later. But although weed is fully legal in Arizona, public consumption remains prohibited. So, anyone who wants to light up during the game will have to keep it on the DL.

The Gridiron Greats tournament doesn't plan to stop players from smoking green on the green, though. McMahon and his team are advertising the event as the first open cannabis consumption golf tournament to be held in conjunction with the Super Bowl. In addition to smoking weed, attendees will also be treated to live entertainment, photo ops, and cannabis-themed talks.

“This will be the first time at a Super Bowl golf event where cannabis will be readily consumed,” said McMahon to the Phoenix Business Journal. “Everybody there will probably not be a cannabis user, and that is fine. I’m trying to invite guys I know who are good guys and like to have a good time.”

The tournament is a charity event, and all proceeds will go to The Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, a nonprofit that helps retired NFL players and family members who have fallen on hard times. McMahon and his partners will also be using the event to promote their own weed brand, Revenant. Each of the company's three partners has personally used cannabis to help treat chronic pain, wean themselves off of addictive opioid pharmaceuticals, and to tackle insomnia and other issues. 

“Our goal is to utilize our platform to send a strong message to the NFL, and other sports organizations that fail to recognize cannabis for medicinal purposes,” McMahon told AZMarijuana. “Throughout our NFL careers and retirement, myself, Kyle Turley, and Eben Britton have witnessed first-hand the damaging effects of opioids and other harmful prescription medications on the bodies and minds of not only ourselves but fellow athletes alike.”

“We are coming strong with an unrelenting commitment to resolve, aid and educate those who seek to take their lives back from mental or physical suffering of any kind, by using the cannabis plant,” Turley said, according to AZMarijuana.

Many other famous athletes have launched their own sports recovery-focused cannabis brands in the past few years as well. But although many of these companies are founded by NFL legends like McMahon, the football league strictly prohibits any cannabis business from advertising during the Super Bowl. The NFL has recently started showing support for medical marijuana, and will no longer suspend players who test positive for weed, but advertising pot at pro games is still off limits.

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Chris Moore
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Chris Moore is a New York-based writer who has written for Mass Appeal while also mixing records and producing electronic music.
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