As the landscape surrounding cannabis use continues to shift—from the global Olympic stage to U.S. sport entities—the conversation surrounding cannabis and sports is arguably more prominent than ever. And, following the NFL’s biggest event of the year, former running back Ricky Williams continues to speak out regarding the validity of cannabis in aiding both physical and mental wellness.
The football-player-turned-activist spoke with InsideHook about his experience using cannabis and is working to shatter the stigma surrounding athletes’ use of cannabis. He noted that, while he understands those who have reported negative experiences, there are many folks who have yet to try cannabis. For those people, Williams suggested they come over and join him in a smoke sesh.
“We’ll just take one hit, and we’ll have a conversation,” Williams said. “My sense is 100 percent of those people are going to have a different opinion afterward from just having the experience. So much about altered states of consciousness, entheogens and psychedelics is about the set and setting. When we have this idea that what we’re doing is wrong, the set and setting are already messed up.”
Williams was suspended five times in his NFL career for violating the league’s drug abuse policy and missed two full seasons for using cannabis, which the league is now spending $1 million in funding to study the effects of, specifically looking at how cannabinoids interact with pain management and neuroprotection from concussion in elite football players.
NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sillis told The Associated Press that they are always interested in options to improve treatment for acute and chronic pain in NFL players.
“We always want to make sure that our players are receiving the most up-to-date medical consensus around any of these treatments,” Sillis said.
Williams said that his issue with the NFL wasn’t necessarily about cannabis, rather the whole idea that players are expected to be “a certain kind of person” because they play in the NFL; he said, if players don’t fit into the box that’s placed upon them, there isn’t room for them.
“Part of the NFL drug program is they assume you have mental health issues,” Williams said. “If you’re in the NFL, you probably do. They have you meet with a mental health specialist once a week when you’re in the program. But the program was meant to keep us out of trouble. It wasn’t meant to help us and it backfired. If a company or corporation really cares about someone’s well being beyond how much money they can make, I think the first step is taking care of the mental health of the people that work for them.”
Williams is also putting his name and work post-football toward making change in the cannabis and sports space. His lifestyle brand Highsman has partnered with cannabis pre-roll brand Jeeter on a limited-edition collaboration, with all proceeds going to benefit Athletes for CARE, a nonprofit that advocates for the mental health and physical wellbeing of athletes worldwide.
Williams spoke on his relationship with cannabis, referencing his social anxiety disorder and mild depression. After trying out prescription medication, he started using cannabis, and it was invaluable to his mental health journey. He said he believes cannabis is key to mental health, and for Williams specifically, it helps to open his mind.
“When I smoke, I can slip underneath my conditioning and tap into who I really am and start to function from that deeper place,” Williams said. “There are lots of ways to talk about it. People talk about being high. This idea of we’re raising above and looking at our lives and our situations from a different perspective.”
Though, he said, many people don’t realize that and think the sole purpose of cannabis is to be “silly” or “have a good time.” While cannabis surely can provide either experience, he said the greatest gift of cannabis is a wider sense of awareness.
“I think about how the things that I do are affecting my community and the people around me. It’s funny. I’m a philosophical person, and before I started smoking, I’d talk to people and they would look at me and they say, ‘What are you smoking?’ And I would say, ‘I don’t smoke, but maybe I should.’”
