Jason La Canfora: NFL Needs To Stop Testing For Marijuana
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Jason La Canfora has had enough.
In the wake of Le'Veon Bell reportedly being slapped with a four-game suspension for failing and/or missing multiple drug tests due to marijuana usage, the CBS Sports NFL insider made an impassioned plea to stop the madness.
"I've dropped my specimen cup and I'm waving the white flag," La Canfora wrote in a column. "Spare us all...get the heck out of these guys' living rooms, or dens, or hermitically-sealed smoke rooms."
La Canfora doesn't see who this benefits.
"Is there anyone who thinks this is good for football?" La Canfora said. "I mean, aside from a short-sighted fan, whose team plays the Steelers, say, in Week 3, and who is hoping that week Bell is still suspended. What are we really accomplishing?"
"I understand the need for players to follow the rules, but shouldn't the punishments fit the crimes," he added. "What if we just admit this is a personal choice a good many of these athletes are going to make as a counter-punch to all of the blows to the head they are contractually obligated to take?"
He expanded upon those thoughts during an interview with "The Fan Morning Show" on Tuesday.
"I don't care if these guys smoke pot. That's my take. You're gonna tell me none of these owners smoke occasionally? None of these coaches smoke occasionally? I'm perplexed as to why the league is as deep into pot policing as it is," La Canfora said. "If [the players] are basically contractually obligated to take head trauma and significant brain risk, then if they want to mediate that, or remedy that with marijuana, which is being increasingly legalized and which is already legal in several states in which NFL players play in, I don't have a problem with it."
Additionally, he feels the NFL is more concerned with testing for marijuana than they are about policing the use of HGH.
"They cast a pretty wide net for marijuana. They don't seem to cast much of a net at all for HGH. Which should be the bigger concern? Which actually has some potential balance of power effect on the league and which is a recreational drug that is costing certain players and certain teams, their livelihood or certainly greatly altering the field of play?"
Bell has taken to social media to let everyone know his appeal will work and he won't get suspended. La Canfora has some words of warning for the Steelers running back.
"I wouldn't be throwing any parties around there just yet," La Canfora said. "I wouldn't be saying he absolutely, positively has a get out of jail free card."
La Canfora then joined The Fan Morning Show to expand on his thoughts, plus to give the latest update on Bell, as well as on James Harrison:
