The NFL is sticking to its anti-marijuana stance, but the Dallas Cowboys are taking the lead in the push to have that policy re-analyzed. Jerry Jones previously started the conversation outside of the public eye, but the Cowboys as an organization are going all-in on wanting to have the league’s marijuana policy amended.
In an interview with Mike Florio on Pro Football Talk Live, Cowboys COO, executive Vice President, and director of player personnel Stephen Jones confirmed the franchise is on the record of wanting the NFL’s marijuana policy to be thoroughly reviewed in an attempt to get with the times.
“Well, our system, our testing, has been in place for years and not unlike we do in our organization . . . we always look to see how we can do it better,” Stephen Jones said in the interview. “I think Jerry’s opinion, my opinion, is this program, this system has been in place for a long time. I think it needs to be heavily scrutinized in terms of its results.”
This comes shortly after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reaffirmed the league’s stance on marijuana in a separate radio interview just last week. According to Goodell, marijuana has “may not be healthy for the players long-term.”
“We really want to help our players in that circumstance but I want to make sure that the negative consequences aren’t something that is something that we’ll be held accountable for some years down the road,” Goodell said, showing the real reason for concern from the league’s standpoint. Basically, Goodell doesn’t want to see the NFL get sued because they allowed players to smoke ’em if they got ’em.
The NFL continues to ban the use of marijuana for players even if those players reside and play in states where the use of marijuana has been legalized. With more and more states moving toward legalization of marijuana, the NFL’s mandate starts to age quickly. Because of that, Stephen Jones thinks it would be wise to take a fresh look at the evolving views of marijuana use in society and see if the NFL is in need of some shifts in medical ideologies.
“When you re-look at the whole program, I think you should take a look at every aspect of it. From the testing to the discipline to the amounts, anything to do with this. At the end of the day our goal should be to help players who have sicknesses and addictions and make them better people off the field, and then how we go about that I think is what needs to be looked at and make sure we’re doing everything the best way we can do it.
Obviously, when you look at something like that you have to look at, ‘How do we do it in society right now? How does that affect the way a player sees his situation in that lens?’ And then make decisions based on that.”
At a meeting of owners earlier this year, Jerry Jones led a closed-door meeting to discuss a handful of topics. Among the topics discussed were the succession plan for whenever Roger Goodell should no longer be the commissioner and the possibility of having the league’s marijuana policy reviewed. Jones reportedly wants the rules violations for marijuana to be dropped entirely. His motives may be a progressive stance, but doing so could also give the owners some bargaining power when it comes time to work on a new collective bargaining agreement with the players. If the players union wanted to place a demand on the marijuana policy, then the owners would have proactively taken away a sticking point for the union.
Goodell does not appear ready to budge from his anti-marijuana stance, but if the Cowboys receive the backing of more NFL teams and owners, then he may have no choice but to give in to the demands of the owners. He can exert power over the players, but when the owners want something done, Goodell has to comply.
Jerry just wants there to be less things his players can get into trouble over.