HOW WILL THE NFL’S WAR ON POT END?
WHEN DAVID IRVING decided he’d had enough and it was time to quit his job, he picked the most public stage possible for his exit: posting his “I’m out” message live on Instagram in May.
The fact that David Irving’s job was playing all positions on the defensive line for the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League—a job his employers were planning to bar him from performing, costing him money and precious time from the limited window of a football player’s already-short career, for the “crime” of using cannabis—is what made Irving’s exit both newsworthy and an omen.
“As you know, I’ve voiced my opinion about this medicine right here,” Irving said as he palmed a tightly rolled joint on the ground floor of a neatly decorated new home.
Cannabis is a perfectly legal substance for adults 21 and over in California, where Irving grew up and maintains a residence. Medical cannabis is also legal in Texas, where he played, though under extraordinarily tight restrictions, and not in flower form.
But it is not permitted for NFL players to use it, though by now 78 percent of the league suits up in states where fans (and team owners) can legally smoke all they want, according to an ESPN tally.
One of the NFL’s rules is no (non-prescribed) drugs, a prohibition that has, for now, managed to survive even amid a broader culture shift around cannabis. How much longer, though, will depend on whether the league shifts its position during negotiations around the next collective-bargaining agreement. And whether Irving’s outburst is a fit of righteous pique or
