NORML SHOW LIVE and CelebStoner.com have teamed up to create the first NFL.com Fantasy Football team comprised solely of active players who have been known to smoke marijuana.  Based on the popular CelebStoner “All-Drug Bust” team, CelebStoner’s Steve Bloom and NORML SHOW LIVE’s Russ Belville have compiled a roster of players who either failed an NFL mandated drug test or got detained or busted by police in a marijuana-related incident.

The team, playing in the “Viper Football League” at viperfl.league.fantasy.nfl.com and known as the “NSLCS Pigskin Potheads”, features Michael Vick (Philadelphia Eagles) as its starting QB.  While even casual NFL observers will recall Vick’s infamy in his dog-fighting convictions, few remember that before those events Vick was caught in an airport with a false-bottom water bottle containing marijuana.  Chris Simms (Tennessee Titans), who was acquitted after a DUI stop where police said “the smell of pot just came off his clothes and out of his car”, will back up Vick.

The starting running backs are Ricky Williams (Baltimore Ravens), known for his multiple NFL drug test failures for the cannabis he used medicinally to treat social anxiety disorder, and Kevin Faulk (New England Patriots), who was busted for possession outside a Lil Wayne concert in Louisiana.  Marshawn Lynch (Seattle Seahawks), and Laurence Maroney (Denver Broncos), caught in traffic stops with marijuana, will act as backups.

Wide receivers starting for the Potheads are Kenny Britt (Tennessee Titans), caught smoking a blunt at a car wash, and Santonio Holmes (New York Jets), the Super Bowl XLIII MVP who was suspended four games in 2010 for failing the NFL’s drug testing program.  Percy Harvin (Minnesota Vikings) and Brandon Tate (New England Patriots) will be the backups.  Harvin has missed a few games due to his migraine headache condition which may have led to his medical use of cannabis, and Tate failed the same NFL Scouting Combine drug test as Harvin.  Other players suiting up on offense for the Potheads are Tight Ends Aaron Hernandez (New England Patriots) and Anthony McCoy (Seattle Seahawks), both of whom also reportedly failed drug tests at the NFL Scouting Combine.

On defense, Defensive Linemen Shaun Ellis (New England Patriots) and Jonathan Babineaux (Atlanta Falcons) both were caught with marijuana during traffic stops.   Linebackers Leroy Hill (Seattle Seahawks) and Quan Sturdivant (Arizona Cardinals) also were busted in their cars with marijuana (Hill was passed out in his car at 4am).  Defensive Back Derrick Martin (Green Bay Packers) was found possessing marijuana at the Cleveland airport and DB Tom Zbikowski (Baltimore Ravens) failed a marijuana drug test in his boxing career.

Only among kickers were Bloom and Belville unable to find direct evidence of involvement with marijuana.  So Kickers Lawrence Tynes (New York Giants) and Sebastian Janikowski (Oakland Raiders) were allowed onto the team under special conditions.  While Tynes has no apparent involvement with marijuana, he did ask the president to pardon his brother Mark, who is serving 27 years in prison for marijuana trafficking.  Janikowski’s involvement with marijuana is unknown, but he does have past incidents with gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), the so-called “date rape drug”.

Every week of the NFL season, NORML SHOW LIVE will bring you the results of the Viper Football League scores as the “NSLCS Pigskin Potheads” do battle with teams made up primarily of players from last year’s Super Bowl contenders, known in this league as the “Green Bud Packers” and the “Pittsburgh Stoners”, and a fourth team, the “Kansas City Chiefed”.

Those aren't duck feathers on the shoulder pads... they're pot leaves! (October 29, 2010 - Photo by Harry How/Getty Images North America)

This just in from the Department of Yeah, Right…

(Albany Democrat-Herald) Oregon State Police maintain University of Oregon football players got no special treatment during a June 12 traffic stop for excessive speeding on Interstate 5 near Albany.

OSP spokesman Lt. Gregg Hastings said a number factors go into any citation.

“Issuing a citation of speed at 118 is more serious in terms of penalty — both in fines and potential impacts — than a careless driving citation,” he said. “In terms of reckless driving, just speed alone is not the only factor that is considered.”

He said traffic and road conditions also play a part in the decision. Just because someone is speeding does not automatically mean they are being reckless, he said.

Uh-huh.  When I was seventeen, I spun a cookie at 25MPH in an empty mall parking lot with the nearest obstacle easily 100 yards away.  I was stone cold sober and got cited for reckless driving and spent two days in jail.  On the other hand, I’ve never thrown a touchdown pass for a national champion runner-up football team.

It is nice to know that driving 53MPH over the speed limit in a hot-boxed car on the main north-south freeway in my home state is not necessarily reckless driving.  This will make my trip to the Jefferson State Hemp Expo next weekend much quicker (kidding!)

So that addresses the speed question. But what about the burnt marijuana smell?

“In that case it would be expected the officer would inquire about that odor,” Hastings said, which the trooper did.

To which the passengers in the car admitted “we smoked it all.”  So we have a driver going 118MPH admitting to recent marijuana smoking in a car reeking of weed and he got a ticket for speeding and driving on a suspended license… and let go on his merry way.

He said the next step isn’t always a search of the vehicle.

Officer safety, lighting and whether backup is available are factors.

“In some cases, the mere odor of marijuana isn’t probable cause in and of itself,” Hastings said. In other words, the trooper would need consent of the driver, or for a judge to sign off on a warrant, to search the vehicle.

“An odor of burnt marijuana may not necessarily be evidence a felony has occurred,” which is possessing more than an ounce of marijuana.

Hmm… so maybe you can explain why Ganja Jon, Wiz Kaliko, and Cannabis Cure UK were detained by five police cars in Roseburg, Oregon, and had their car searched extensively, with the threat of breaking the car windows if they did not comply, for merely smelling like burnt marijuana while getting munchies at the convenience store?  In fact, the officer involved there said the smell of the marijuana was enough probable cause that he didn’t need “consent of the driver, or for a judge to sign off on a warrant, to search the vehicle.”

Wait, I remember.  Jon, Kaliko, and Cure didn’t return any interceptions for a national champion runner-up football team and aren’t the cousins of any of the players.

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• It Only Takes One Idiot (or: How to derail the reform efforts of dozens by the actions of a few)

Last time the Packers were in a Super Bowl, "Radical" Russ ended up interviewing with a local Las Vegas news station.

As some of you might know, Russ Belville is The Au Gratin Cheesehead.  No, that’s not an insult, Russ hails from the pro sports-deprived state of Idaho, where like so many other potato heads, he pledged his football allegiance to the nearby chedder noggins [Russ: nearby? Idaho, not Iowa!], the 12-time World Champion Green Bay Packers.   And so is born the Au Gratin Cheesehead.  [Russ: Packers fan from Idaho.  Potatoes & Cheese.  Au Gratin.  Get it?]

I, on the other hand, hail from the steel city, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the team with the most Super Bowl victories in the NFL, the Pittsburgh Steelers.  [Russ: Six Super Bowls to Green Bay's three.]

This is where we need your help.  Russ and I would like to make a friendly wager that we could fulfill online during the NORML SHOW LIVE broadcast on the Monday after the Super Bowl.   Leave a suggestion for our bet below in the comments box.  And while you’re here, vote for your favorite in Superbowl XLV.

"ND" stands for "No Dopers" but certainly not "No Drinkers"

If you are under the age of 21, both alcohol and marijuana are drugs that are illegal for you to possess and use.  But only one of them is celebrated in our culture, considered a normal part of “growing up”, and leads to countless student sexual assaults, violence, and the occasional death.

CINCINNATI (FOX News) — A “drunk and belligerent” 17-year-old Notre Dame football recruit was killed in a fall from a fifth-floor hotel balcony during his senior-year spring break in Florida, authorities said Saturday.

Matt James died Friday around 6:30 p.m. at the Days Inn Motel in Panama City Beach. Police said he was dead when officers arrived.

“It appears to be a tragic accident,” Panama City Beach police Maj. David Humphreys said.

James’ former teammates at St. Xavier High School gathered for a private prayer service in the school’s chapel, mourning the second death of an athlete this school year. James, an all-state offensive lineman, had been the first top signing for new Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.

James isn’t the first spring breaker to die from a balcony fall this year. Brandon Kohler, a 19-year-old from Winder, Ga., died March 24 when he fell from a fifth-floor balcony at the Holiday Terrace Motel in Panama City Beach.

While this took place at Spring Break, the news of an under-21 college student dying from the toxic effects of binge drinking or accidents related to drunkenness is not uncommon.  Yet Notre Dame, like most universities, give those guilty of underaged drinking nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

(WSBT) …[T]he new Notre Dame head coach is more bystander than authority figure in the aftermath of star wide receiver Michael Floyd’s recent citation for underage drinking back home in the Twin Cities during Winter Break.

According to a police report, Floyd said he was involved in a physical altercation with a Somali man at a house party. Floyd’s longtime friend, Minnesota running back Shady Salamon, was also cited for underage drinking in the early-morning hours Friday.

The legal ramifications are easy – likely a fine and/or pretrial diversion program in Minneapolis. What happens next with the football team is a way more difficult read.

Common sense would dictate an in-house punishment imposed by Kelly that involved some early-morning workouts and perhaps some community service to keep the other side of campus happy.

That sort of fits the scenario lived out by ND backup offensive lineman Mike Golic Jr. when he and 40 other students were arrested for underage drinking during a raid at a party on South Bend’s east side in September of 2008.

But the judicial body making that decision, the Office of Residence Life, is inconsistent and unpredictable – some might even say capricious.

Recently deposed Irish head football coach Charlie Weis actually went a few steps further, calling Res Life “the biggest problem on campus relative to the football program.”

“It’s not close for second,” Weis said in an interview shortly after his firing. “I think if you took a poll of the students at Notre Dame on what’s the biggest negative issue, I would bet at least 50 percent of them would say, ‘Residence Life.’

“They don’t understand all the principles of du Lac [the Notre Dame Student Handbook]. These are college kids. College kids do what college kids do. I just don’t understand why they’re even issues.”

Y’know, college kids just naturally engage in illegal drinking, it’s what college kids do.  Sure, some of ‘em die from drinking games, keg stands, and beer bongs, so why is it even an issue?  But if the football player is caught smoking a cannabis bong…?

(Chicago Breaking Sports) Mike Ragone worked diligently to return from multiple knee injuries and had a rousing spring game effort just weeks ago. And now his 2010 season may rest in the hands of Notre Dame’s student disciplinary arm.

Ragone faces a misdemeanor marijuana charge after a weekend arrest, in which police found two small bags of the drug in the purse of a woman passenger in the car Ragone was driving, according to reports.

According to probable cause affidavits filed by Trooper Tony LoMonaco, Ragone gave the baggies to his girlfriend to hide in her purse as they were being pulled over. LoMonaco said Ragone waived his right to remain silent and said the marijuana belonged to him.

That admission could prove significant — and not in a good way — when Ragone appears for his inevitable hearing with Notre Dame’s Office of Residence Life.

And what could that punishment be?

(Bleacher Report) It may seem heavy in terms of other universities, but Notre Dame holds their student athletes to a higher standard. Under Article 6 in Notre Dame’s Student Handbook, one can find the outline of drug penalties:

Possession, use or misuse of any controlled substance, including, but not limited to, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and depressants, is a serious violation of University policy. Students who possess, use or misuse such substances shall be subject to disciplinary suspension or permanent dismissal.

Ragone may or may not done the blue and gold ever again. That decision has yet to be made.

So students shall be subject to automatic suspension or dismissal for cannabis, first offense.  The punishment for underaged alcohol use?  Not so cut and dried…

(du Lac) 2. All students are responsible for complying with University regulations and Indiana laws regarding possession or consumption of alcohol.

a. Any person under 21 years of age is underage in the State of Indiana. All students are expected to comply with Indiana law at all times. Students may be subject to disciplinary action for underage consumption, possession or transportation of alcoholic beverages.

e. Students are not permitted to provide alcohol to any person who is underage. For purposes of this policy, provide means to sell, lend, give, make available, exchange, barter or furnish in any way.

g. Underage students may not host tailgate gatherings at which alcohol is served or consumed.

3. Intoxication by any student, regardless of age, whether in public or in private, is prohibited. Symptoms of intoxication include slurred speech, impaired motor coordination and balance, loss of good judgment, or nausea. Symptoms of severe intoxication include the inability to walk or stand, loss of consciousness, or vomiting. A student’s first incident of intoxication shall be addressed by the Rector if the violation occurs in the student’s residence hall and the behavior does not fall within the definition of severe intoxication. At the discretion of the Rector, the student may be referred to the Office of Residence Life and Housing. Second and subsequent incidents of intoxication throughout a student’s academic career, as well as any violations that occur outside the student’s residence hall, shall be referred to the Office of Residence Life and Housing. Similarly, all instances of severe intoxication shall be referred to the Office of Residence Life and Housing. Repeated incidents of intoxication or a single incident of a serious nature may result in disciplinary suspension or permanent dismissal from the University.

So if I’m reading this correctly, mere use of alcohol by an underaged student has no automatic suspension or dismissal and may only be subject to disciplinary action.  Intoxication by an underaged student has no automatic suspension or dismissal.  Repeated intoxication by an underaged student has no automatic suspension or dismissal.  A serious incident of intoxication or repeated intoxication by an underaged student may lead to suspension or dismissal.

This is SAFER’s entire reason for existence.  Check them out for information on their SAFER Campuses Initiative.

Gee, without the pot smoking, maybe Percy Harvin could have been Double Super NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year!

ORLANDO (Sports Illustrated) — There’s a widespread belief within the NFL that the 2010 draft represents one of the deepest and most promising pools of collegiate talent in years. But in addition to the vast potential of this year’s draft class, numerous NFL personnel evaluators told SI.com they are concerned about the increased number of prospects who have a history of marijuana use in their background, with players often acknowledging a failed drug test for pot in college in interviews with team executives.

According to one veteran club personnel man, 10 or 11 players who carry first-round draft grades on their board this year have been red-flagged for marijuana use in college, an estimate echoed by two clubs’ head coaches. Another NFL head coach estimated that “one-third” of the players on his club’s draft board had some sort of history with marijuana use and would thus require an extra level of evaluation as part of the pre-draft scouting process.

“Marijuana use is almost epidemic, with more guys having tested positive for marijuana at some point in their college background than I can ever remember,” said a longtime team personnel man. “It’s almost as if we are having to figure out a new way to evaluate it as part of the character and background report, because it’s so prevalent. There’re enough instances of it that it’s hard to know how to set your board. You can’t throw out that many guys. You have to go case-by-case and do your homework on them.”

“It’s a matter of figuring out which ones smoke, and which ones have to smoke, because they really [are addicted],” another head coach said. “It’s like the drinking issue. You want to know if a guy drinks, or if he has a drinking problem. You’re trying to find out and make that distinction with some guys.”

Gee, without the pot smoking, maybe Plaxico Burress and Santonio Holmes could have caught all the Super Bowl TD passes, not just the game-winning ones!

Gosh, you mean you might have to evaluate the worth of a player based on his character and athleticism, and not just by the non-toxic relaxant herbs he may choose to consume?  You might have to treat marijuana-using athletes the same way you treat alcohol-using athletes?

Why is it that the increased prevalence of marijuana use isn’t considered part of the reason for “deepest and most promising pools of collegiate talent”?  You know that if this class of college players really sucked and there were a lot of pot smokers in that group, the sports writers would be complaining that “dope” use has slowed down and dulled the senses of these players.

The evidence is clear that a player’s past use of pot doesn’t mean they can’t contribute greatly to their team’s success:

• Three years ago, the winning Super Bowl TD pass was caught by the Giants’ Plaxico Burress – a pot smoker.
• Two years ago, the winning Super Bowl TD pass was caught by the Steelers’ Santonio Holmes – a pot smoker.
• Last year, the winning Super Bowl TD pass could have been caught by Vikings’ NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Percy Harvin – a pot smoker – if only the Vikings hadn’t been struck down by the Football Gods with a case of “live by the Favre, die by the Favre” in the NFC Championship.

Sure, Ricky Williams just had his fifth 1,000-yard rushing season, but without the pot smoking, he could have had his most-ever TDs, instead of just his 2nd-most ever.

Speaking of Brent, in the NFL you can admit to popping 13 Vicodin a night and you can be a raging alcoholic, but since those drugs are “legal”, you can still be “Totally Cool” on Sports Illustrated’s cover.  But get caught with some weed and you get a suspension and fines worth $300,000.

CelebStoner has been collecting the NFL All-Drug Bust Team for some time and you could just about fill a roster with the offensive and defensive players on the list.  Ricky Williams, Randy Moss, DeSean Jackson, Shaun Ellis, and many more players who are top players in the league have admitted to using or been caught using cannabis.

Is it any surprise that world-class athletes from sumo to martial arts, swimming to snowboarding, sprinting to mushing, football to rugby, and basketball to baseball, choose to use the “safest therapeutically-active substance known to man?”  People who train their bodies to the peak of perfection, who monitor their nutrition to the gram and calorie, and whose paychecks depend on being the fittest they can be know that cannabis is a safe way to relieve pain and inflammation and to decrease stress and anxiety.  They can’t afford the puking and hangovers that alcohol bring (Max McGee notwithstanding).  Why should we punish these professionals for smoking cannabis?

Minnesota Vikings' Percy Harvin, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year 2010

(NFL.com) UPDATE: Vikings rookie WR Percy Harvin missed two days of practice because of migraine headaches, but he was expected to fly to New Orleans for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, citing sources.

Vikings LT Bryant McKinnie used his Twitter page Saturday to post a short video interview with Harvin, who complained about his migraines but appeared to be in the locker room packing for the trip.

“Man, I’ve tried everything, and nothing works,” said Harvin, who’s listed as questionable to play against the Saints. “I give up.”

---

(AFP) MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — The Minnesota Vikings could be without NFL offensive rookie of the year Percy Harvin for Sunday’s NFC conference championship game at New Orleans.

Harvin, who has served as a wide receiver and kickoff returner, missed his second straight practice Friday because of migraine headaches.

It’s an ailment Harvin has dealt with most of his life, and one which cost him one game this season.

Vikings coach Brad Childress said the situation was “less than ideal” and said Harvin might not be able to fly with the team to New Orleans on Saturday.

Harvin has had migraines all of his life.  Medical marijuana has been shown to be a fantastic, non-toxic treatment for migraine pain. Some researchers believe that migraine may be related to an underproduction in our body’s natural endocannabinoid system.

So after a standout college career at Florida, Harvin’s stock in the NFL draft fell when he reportedly tested positive for inactive THC-COOH metabolites at the NFL’s scouting combine last April.  Indeed, were it not for the news of the marijuana in Harvin’s system, the Vikings probably would not have been in a position to pick up the star wide receiver who has won the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award and is a favorite of #4, the quarterback for the Vikings (whose name is an unpronounceable symbol to me.)

Then Harvin missed most of pre-season mini-camp and the NFL symposium for rookies and a key game versus Cincinnati when they were chasing the New Orleans Saints for homefield advantage.  I presume that’s because the NFL’s substance abuse policy means he cannot use medical marijuana and his lifelong migraines have come back.

Now Harvin may miss the biggest game of his career, the biggest game since their 2001 loss to the Giants and their 1999 loss to the Falcons and their 1988 loss to Redskins and their 1978 loss to the Cowboys in the NFC Championships… as a Packers fan, I’m torn, because I feel Harvin should be able to treat his pain with cannabis, but it #4 has one less talented receiver to throw to in the Superdome, maybe I can abide by the NFL’s ridiculous ban on marijuana use by players for just one more week.

(Huffington Post) LOS ANGELES — Football has long been the athletic stepchild at inner-city Crenshaw High School. Trophy cases are crammed with basketball awards. Gym walls are lined with hoops championship flags.

But the football team is undefeated this season and headed for the California state championship bowl game this weekend, and the coach attributes part of the success to an unlikely off-field source: rapper Snoop Dogg.

Nine of this year’s Crenshaw High School Cougars went through the 5-year-old Snoop Youth Football League, representing the first crop of varsity players to cut their teeth in the program. The league has produced standouts at other schools, but none has more players or a better record than Crenshaw.

I love it when one of our own gives back to the community.  Everybody knows Snoop Dogg as the pot-smoking rapper, so when he turns father-figure coach to kids in the inner city, spending over a million dollars of his own money to give them football, it’s great public relations for marijuana without even having to mention it.

But further along into the article there is this portion that really lifts me up:

But the league soon caught on, especially when fathers with criminal records learned they could coach, unlike most other youth sports. Broadus, himself a former gang member, has several convictions for drugs and weapons offenses, and if the league didn’t allow ex-cons, there wouldn’t be enough coaches.

The coaching exception has also reconnected boys with their dads, or at least with positive male role models in neighborhoods where fathers are often behind bars or otherwise absent.

The dads, many of them members of the rival Bloods and Crips, must agree to leave their gang disputes away from the field.

It got me to thinking about all of the opportunities that we are denied once we’re caught with marijuana and given the “drug criminal” stamp on our lifelong record.  With all the kids that could use more interaction with positive adult role models, it seems a shame that getting caught with weed twenty years ago could prevent a father from being his son’s Pop Warner football coach.

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(The Detroit News) Former Michigan State and Lions Charles Rogers talks of getting hooked on prescription pills and admits to a past daily marijuana habit, according to excerpts from an interview for an upcoming segment on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines.”

“Regularly, regularly, yeah I blew every day,” Rogers tells ESPN and former Detroit Free Press reporter Jemele Hill, answering the question how often he smoked marijuana while in the NFL. “But you know, I was doing something wrong. You can’t smoke in the league, so I was wrong.”

Rogers was a two-time All-Big Ten receiver and an All-American in 2002 for the Spartans before the Lions selected him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft.

A much-hyped selection given his local roots and his hefty contract — he signed a six-year, $55 million deal — Rogers, a Saginaw native, caught two touchdown passes in his NFL debut, a 43-24 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 7, 2003.

That was the high point of a career that fell hard and fell quickly.

Rogers missed much of his rookie season with a broken collarbone, then suffered a similar injury early in the 2004 season. But the big blow came in 2005, when he was suspended four games for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. He returned from the punishment but was mostly ineffective, with nine catches and one touchdown in the season’s final seven games.

Speaking of that third season, then-Lions president Matt Millen tells ESPN’s Hill: “He was average. Something clearly was wrong. He looked like a different guy.”

Gee, Matt, on your 4-12 2005 team, “average” would have been spectacular, wouldn’t it?  (And no, I’m not just bitter because one of those four wins was on opening day against reen Bay.)

I hate the headline and tone of this article, which would have you believing that Charles Rogers is a sad case of a talented athlete whose career was ruined by weed.  But think about it for a second.  Do we think he just started smoking marijuana when he was drafted by Detroit?  I doubt it.  Instinct tells me he “blew every day” while he was becoming a two-time All-Big-Ten receiver, All-American, and #2 overall NFL draft pick.  Then he suffers a broken collarbone – a very painful injury – twice in his first two years in the league.  He uses cannabis, I assume, as part of the pain relief and prescription pills for the rest.  Then he’s suspended for “substance abuse”, which has to be the weed, because they won’t suspend you for legit prescriptions.  So, again I assume, he has to quit the cannabis, but the pain still remains, so he has to keep using the pills, perhaps more of them since cannabis tends to moderate the need for opioids.

I’m betting the mind fog from prescription pills plus the fear of leaping over the middle for the tough catch and getting pegged in that collarbone by Brian Urlacher twice a year would turn anyone into “a different guy”.