Pylon DETROIT, MI – NOVEMBER 20: Detail view of the NFL Salute to Service logo on the end zone pylon prior to the start of the game between the Detroit Lions and the Jacksonville Jaguars at Ford Field on November 20, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)

The NFL has long shied away from medical marijuana as a pain reliever, and the league still punishes players for smoking, even in states where it’s perfectly legal. However, the league could start looking at changing that stance.

The NFL’s new chief medical officer, neurosurgeon Allen Sills, told the Washington Post that medial marijuana research is “really important,” and that the league will look into how it can be used.

“I think we have a lot more to learn about that,” Allen Sills, a Vanderbilt University neurosurgeon hired by the NFL in March, said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Certainly the research about marijuana and really more particularly cannabinoid compounds as they may relate to the treatment of both acute and chronic pain, that is an area of research that we need a lot more information on and we need to further develop.

“I think that’s part of what we hope to accomplish together working together with the Players Association,” Sills said. “I think this is really important because I like to talk about that our approach to caring for players is really holistic. We want to talk about health and safety issues that affect the whole player experience. And certainly pain management is a big part of that.”

Sills also conceded that a study by Boston University that found CTE in 110 of 111 former NFL players was important, even as the NFL has refused to work with BU’s doctors in the past.

However, Sills still hedged on important points about CTE, creating purported questions where there really are none.

I think it’s very clear that there are long-term health risks associated with repetitive head injuries, particularly if they’re not treated properly. That’s something that’s been established since 1928. A pathologist named Harrison Martland first described a syndrome in boxers where he talked about the effects of repetitive head blows. So I think that association is very well known. But I agree, again, with a lot of medical experts that we still have a lot of unanswered questions about cause, about incidence, prevalence and long-term effects such as CTE, particularly why some people that play football and other contact-collision sports develop this condition and the vast majority do not.”

After the latest BU study, there is virtually no way to say that repetitive blows to the head don’t cause CTE. And just because we don’t know everything about CTE doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start taking it seriously. Moreover, Sills misrepresents how CTE works. CTE manifests itself through both concussive and subconcussive hits that build up over time. Research has shown that the only known way to “treat” neurodegenerative diseases like CTE is to play less football—not to somehow treat subconcussive hits.

This is why it’s important to make sure the NFL doesn’t somehow leverage the goodwill it could earn from players in allowing medical marijuana into getting a pass on acknowledging the seriousness of CTE. Medical marijuana is used for pain management, and it has zero known effect on the actual neurodegenerative impact of CTE.

The NFL should allow players to use medical marijuana, but that doesn’t absolve it of its duties to acknowledge the research that shows football’s detrimental impact on the brain. Hopefully the league doesn’t take the one-or-the-other approach, but its history shows that we can’t trust it not to.

About Kevin Trahan

Kevin mostly covers college football and college basketball, with an emphasis on NCAA issues and other legal issues in sports. He is also an incoming law student. He's written for SB Nation, USA Today, VICE Sports, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.