Former Dolphin Rex Hadnot chronicles drug abuse in the NFL

[Daytona Fin]

Former NFL linebacker Scott Fujita said he still has the pill bottle, nearly the size of a soda can. “It was the craziest big pill bottle you’ve ever seen,” he said. It was given to him by an NFL team physician to treat a single knee injury, yet it contained, he estimates, somewhere between 125 and 150 pills of Percocet, the addictive oxycodone-based painkiller. On another NFL team Fujita played for, he says, an assistant trainer passed out narcotic painkillers in unlabeled small manila envelopes before games to whoever raised a hand.

Ex-offensive lineman Rex Hadnot described the moment he joined a class action accusing NFL teams of misusing narcotics and other pain medications to keep players on the field despite injuries. It was the day a lawyer explained to him that the powerful anti-inflammatory Toradol should not be used for more than five days under Food and Drug Administration guidelines, at risk of kidney damage. By Hadnot’s estimate, medical staffs from four NFL teams gave him Toradol injections or Toradol pills virtually once a week — for nine years, from 2004 until he retired after the 2012 season, without explaining potential side effects.

“Sometimes I got the shot and the pill,” he said.

While each franchise had varying team rules governing everything from player conduct to dress, he said the basic handling of prescription drugs was essentially the same.

“Different teams would have issues about how much apparel they’d want to give out, but with the prescription drugs, it was the same everywhere,” Hadnot said. “I was never told ‘No.’ ”

He got meds from doctors and trainers alike.

“I could get ’em from whomever,” he said. “Even trainers that were not the head trainers.”

He said trainers would ask, “What do you need?”

“Where I grew up, that’s a drug dealer’s question,” he said.

Meds were passed out on airplanes, Hadnot said, and even on a bus in Cleveland on a short road trip to Pittsburgh. “And alcohol was always around, and everybody knows it,” he said.

That mirrors Hadnot’s experience. Over the course of his career, Hadnot suffered four torn ligaments in his left knee alone and one in his right, as well as a torn labrum in his left shoulder and multiple neck stingers. He said meds helped him play through back spasms, sore hamstrings, high ankle sprains, wrist and elbow injuries and countless concussions. To do so, he would take “five to six prescription pills during the week and then have a shot and take pills in game day. And that’s not to mention the Tylenol.”

The pressure to perform, he said, “was dire.” He was only as good as his last game “and if the last game was a loss, you are expendable. When you put that pressure on people, they go to great lengths, and it was a trickle-down effect, even to the trainers and doctors.”

The Toradol made him feel relatively pain-free until the next day, when “I’d feel like I was drug through the street.” It was hard to get out of bed and walk down a flight of stairs or even pick up his small daughter, Kalyn. “She’d say, ‘Daddy can you carry me?’ I’d say ‘Sorry, baby, I cannot,’ ” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...bd3e984_story.html?postshare=3061417139155439

 

[67Stang]

Sad, but they can say no. 2 wrongs don't make a right.

 

[Sons Of Shula]

You can't ignore the dark side of playing football professionally. I know playing is a choice and a privilege but it still doesn't detract from the unfavorable conditions and demands for what most have to go though and face for this career.

 

[Fin Fan in Cali]

Sad, but they can say no. 2 wrongs don't make a right.

I see your point bro but the pressure on the players to be on the field has got to be off the charts.

 

[Aqua Shadow]

In my opinion, you can't blame the player because they are in pain. You also cannot blame the trainer because the players tend to always be in pain, its a brutal game. There really is no blame to go around except when given dangerous dosages. If there were an overdose on the field then I would look to place blame. Otherwise , I think the only answer is to educate the players prior to the start of training camp and make all training staff pass some kind of certification/training.

 

[67Stang]

I see your point bro but the pressure on the players to be on the field has got to be off the charts.

I agree, but it is still their choice. I just don't like players playing ignorant that they didn't know. Very high risk high reward profession with a high demand. These players, even making the league minimum make more in 3 or 4 years that a lot of people make in a life time....they blow it and then blame the league and sue it. They should be set up for life, and for generations to come,,,,but aren't and try to play the victim card,

 

[j-off-her-doll]

I agree, but it is still their choice. I just don't like players playing ignorant that they didn't know. Very high risk high reward profession with a high demand. These players, even making the league minimum make more in 3 or 4 years that a lot of people make in a life time....they blow it and then blame the league and sue it. They should be set up for life, and for generations to come,,,,but aren't and try to play the victim card,

I don't get the sense that Hadnot is absolving himself from blame as much as speaking out against a significant issue with the NFL's system. Also, we're talking about people who make money by following orders, so I see the average NFL player having a difficult time turning down pills, from the training staff, in a culture that views pills as a necessity.

 

[Bob512]

It's a competitive business in the NFL. If your not on the field, there is someone else playing your position which creates a lot of pressure. I can see this happening.

 

[67Stang]

I don't get the sense that Hadnot is absolving himself from blame as much as speaking out against a significant issue with the NFL's system. Also, we're talking about people who make money by following orders, so I see the average NFL player having a difficult time turning down pills, from the training staff, in a culture that views pills as a necessity.

I see it it as that, but also as part of the lawsuit. If there wasn't a lawsuit, would he be speaking out? These are also grown men with college degrees making these decisions. I think almost everyone here could tell you that pain killers and similar medications are not good for you over time. Just because a physician is giving it to you doesn't eliminate your responsibility to know what you are putting in your body. I would put money on that he knew the consequences, but because of the reward; he chose to take it anyways. I am not judging him, just saying it takes two to tango. I can imagine it would be hard to walk away or not take the medication and be out longer, with the strong possibility of losing your job. There are few like Barry Sanders that can just walk away from all of that money and fame.

 

[DUB]

While the conditions are extreme in pro football, so is the compensation. This is the profession they chose and you cannot convince me that players come into the league unaware of the risks. Just my 2 cents.

 

[finfan54]

Pick your poison.

fight for your country in a war for peanuts or play pro ball with pain killers. They are young. There bodies heal. They make a lot of money. And teams are generally good about resting people out of games when you are hurt past pain.