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Gone To Pot?

May 17th, 2005

There are a few differences, Onterrio, between being a pot smoker and being a pothead. Wanna know what some of them are? Well, let’s start here: Being a pot smoker isn’t a bad thing. (I won’t say it’s a good thing, because I’m relatively certain it’s possible to go an entire lifetime without smoking weed and come out of it just fine. I’m not sure why people deny themselves that or any other pleasure, but everyone’s got their thing, and it’s mostly all cool. So let’s say it’s a good thing to be if you dig it.) Being a pothead (for more than, like, a long weekend here, a beach vacation there) is a bad thing. Why’s that? Well, a) because people who are high all the fucking time (like people who are drunk all the fucking time, and, frankly, people who are anything — including dead-on sober/serious — all the fucking time) are a total drag to be around; and b) because being a pothead means being someone who makes decisions based on getting high over every other thing that’s important to them in life. And being one-dimensional just isn’t good for you. But it looks to me, man, like that’s you.

I’m gonna go ahead and guess, Onterrio, that football is pretty damned important to you. And I’m gonna feel good about that guess, too, because I’ve been watching the sport long enough and closely enough to be certain that no one makes it to the NFL unless football means a shitload to them. It’s just too hard to get there. And while you are unquestionably an incredibly talented young man, no one (that’s no one) is talented enough to make it to (never mind in) the NFL on talent alone. You’ve gotta work at it like crazy. So I know you’ve worked at it like crazy. And the fact that it appears there’s a good chance you’re gonna throw it all away — all that hard work, all that preparation, all that being a part of something that clearly meant something to you once if it doesn’t now — simply because you can’t stop smoking a substance that is entirely non-addictive tells me that you’ve got yourself a bit of a psychological problem. Its technical term is potheadedness. It seems to me that you need to decide either to get over it or to let it swallow you. And if you’re gonna go the letting it swallow you route, you owe it to your team, your teammates, and the fans who have paid your salary to date to get the hell out of the way.

Your team is paying you to play to the best of your abilities. And while you and I both know that smoking weed won’t hinder you physically (as long as you’re not high at game time), it remains a fact that the league suspends guys for smoking dope. The NFL’s prohibition of pot smoking is stupid, but it was on the books when you signed up and you know full bloody well that it’s a rule they enforce (at least when guys like you break it often and visibly enough that they can’t overlook it). And since you can’t play to the best (or even the least) of your abilities if the league doesn’t allow you to play at all, it follows that continuing to smoke dope after you’ve been caught once (or, in your case, twice) amounts to shirking your responsibilities as a professional. (You get that you’re supposed to be a professional athlete, right?)

Your teammates, meanwhile, have a right to be on a team with other people who are actually committed to winning. And when you act in a manner that’s likely to remove you from the lineup, you’re showing that your first priority isn’t winning. So if you wanna wake and bake, you need to give up that roster spot (and all that cap money) so the Vikings can replace you with someone who cares about being part of a team. You owe that — or, preferably, a renewed commitment to playing and playing well — to those guys.

And the fans — the folks who buy the tickets and the merchandise, and keep the TV ratings up, and do all that stuff that keeps the money flowing to you, the team and the league — have a right to know that the team they support features players who are not only talented but committed and professional (there’s that word again). They also have a right to see games played, week in and week out, by the best players all of the league’s teams can put on the field. That means players who take the work that pays them ridiculous amounts of money (which comes from … that’s right) as seriously as the fans take their teams and the game.

Right now, Onterrio, it’s looking very much like pot is more important to you than any of those other considerations. It’s also looking — claims about the Whizzinator being for your cousin (who plays what?) notwithstanding — like too much burning may have severely clouded your judgement. (I mean, really, dude, how did you not know you were gonna get caught? And who do you think is buying the cousin story?). That’s another sign that you may be a pothead rather than an average pot smoker.

Why does this shit bother me so much? I don’t know. Maybe because it confirms for people who don’t know better all the negative stereotypes about pot smokers (though why I care about that, I can’t really say). Maybe it’s because it invariably distracts the league and the fans and the media from real problems that actually affect the game. Problems like steroid use. Or maybe its because as a fan, nothing disappoints me more than when players let their personal problems make professional football even slightly less enjoyable than it could be. Take your pick. Or pick none of the above. I don’t care. I’ve said my piece.There are a few differences, Onterrio, between being a pot smoker and being a pothead. Wanna know what some of them are? Well, let’s start here: Being a pot smoker isn’t a bad thing. (I won’t say it’s a good thing, because I’m relatively certain it’s possible to go an entire lifetime without smoking weed and come out of it just fine. I’m not sure why people deny themselves that or any other pleasure, but everyone’s got their thing, and it’s mostly all cool. So let’s say it’s a good thing to be if you dig it.) Being a pothead (for more than, like, a long weekend here, a beach vacation there) is a bad thing. Why’s that? Well, a) because people who are high all the fucking time (like people who are drunk all the fucking time, and, frankly, people who are anything — including dead-on sober/serious — all the fucking time) are a total drag to be around; and b) because being a pothead means being someone who makes decisions based on getting high over every other thing that’s important to them in life. And being one-dimensional just isn’t good for you. But it looks to me, man, like that’s you.

I’m gonna go ahead and guess, Onterrio, that football is pretty damned important to you. And I’m gonna feel good about that guess, too, because I’ve been watching the sport long enough and closely enough to be certain that no one makes it to the NFL unless football means a shitload to them. It’s just too hard to get there. And while you are unquestionably an incredibly talented young man, no one (that’s no one) is talented enough to make it to (never mind in) the NFL on talent alone. You’ve gotta work at it like crazy. So I know you’ve worked at it like crazy. And the fact that it appears there’s a good chance you’re gonna throw it all away — all that hard work, all that preparation, all that being a part of something that clearly meant something to you once if it doesn’t now — simply because you can’t stop smoking a substance that is entirely non-addictive tells me that you’ve got yourself a bit of a psychological problem. Its technical term is potheadedness. It seems to me that you need to decide either to get over it or to let it swallow you. And if you’re gonna go the letting it swallow you route, you owe it to your team, your teammates, and the fans who have paid your salary to date to get the hell out of the way.

Your team is paying you to play to the best of your abilities. And while you and I both know that smoking weed won’t hinder you physically (as long as you’re not high at game time), it remains a fact that the league suspends guys for smoking dope. The NFL’s prohibition of pot smoking is stupid, but it was on the books when you signed up and you know full bloody well that it’s a rule they enforce (at least when guys like you break it often and visibly enough that they can’t overlook it). And since you can’t play to the best (or even the least) of your abilities if the league doesn’t allow you to play at all, it follows that continuing to smoke dope after you’ve been caught once (or, in your case, twice) amounts to shirking your responsibilities as a professional. (You get that you’re supposed to be a professional athlete, right?)

Your teammates, meanwhile, have a right to be on a team with other people who are actually committed to winning. And when you act in a manner that’s likely to remove you from the lineup, you’re showing that your first priority isn’t winning. So if you wanna wake and bake, you need to give up that roster spot (and all that cap money) so the Vikings can replace you with someone who cares about being part of a team. You owe that — or, preferably, a renewed commitment to playing and playing well — to those guys.

And the fans — the folks who buy the tickets and the merchandise, and keep the TV ratings up, and do all that stuff that keeps the money flowing to you, the team and the league — have a right to know that the team they support features players who are not only talented but committed and professional (there’s that word again). They also have a right to see games played, week in and week out, by the best players all of the league’s teams can put on the field. That means players who take the work that pays them ridiculous amounts of money (which comes from … that’s right) as seriously as the fans take their teams and the game.

Right now, Onterrio, it’s looking very much like pot is more important to you than any of those other considerations. It’s also looking — claims about the Whizzinator being for your cousin (who plays what?) notwithstanding — like too much burning may have severely clouded your judgement. (I mean, really, dude, how did you not know you were gonna get caught? And who do you think is buying the cousin story?). That’s another sign that you may be a pothead rather than an average pot smoker.

Why does this shit bother me so much? I don’t know. Maybe because it confirms for people who don’t know better all the negative stereotypes about pot smokers (though why I care about that, I can’t really say). Maybe it’s because it invariably distracts the league and the fans and the media from real problems that actually affect the game. Problems like steroid use. Or maybe its because as a fan, nothing disappoints me more than when players let their personal problems make professional football even slightly less enjoyable than it could be. Take your pick. Or pick none of the above. I don’t care. I’ve said my piece.

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