Want to know what it takes to stay in the NFL? Probably not. Sitting down and watching football on a Sunday afternoon is fun, but it’s decidedly less fun when you learn about what some of the guys on the field are doing to their bodies simply to stay “healthy” enough to play.
Former NFL player Eben Britton just peeled back the curtain and provided everyone with an excellent glimpse into what he had to go through to last five years in the NFL in a piece he penned for The Cauldron. The offensive lineman was selected by the Jaguars in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft—upset about the fact he didn’t go in the first round, he once vowed to become “the greatest offensive tackle to ever play this game”—and he played for Jacksonville for three years before joining the Bears. And his NFL experience sounds, well, we’ll be honest: Horrible.
Britton claims he was forced to start taking Adderall regularly in 2010 to deal with a herniated disc that he suffered during a workout. Initially, he used it without a prescription before asking a doctor to prescribe it to him. His doctor ran some tests on him and agreed that he could benefit from using it. And he did benefit from it, except that, before long, he also started using marijuana to balance out the way Adderall made him feel. It turned into a vicious cycle:
I started taking Adderall regularly — chasing the dragon, as they say, always after the high you had the first time. I didn’t consider myself a drug addict. This was something that was prescribed to me. By a doctor. And given that there was a noticeable difference in my productivity whenever I took it, my usage was easy to justify.
Britton continued using Adderall and weed for four years (FOUR years!) and managed his pain well enough to last in the league. It probably, er, definitely wasn’t the best thing for his body, but he made it work. That is, until one day in 2014 when he left his Adderall at home and decided to ask a teammate for some of his Ritalin. The league had approved Britton's use of Adderall but not Ritalin, so he was handed a four-game suspension after failing a drug test a short time later. Further, he found himself without a home and eventually called it a career.
The scary thing about Britton’s story is that, when you read it, he doesn’t make anything that he went through sound that crazy. Using prescription drugs and weed to manage pain so that you can play football sounds completely normal. You should go check out the entire piece he wrote here. Unless, of course, you actually want to enjoy this Sunday’s slate of games.
Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.
[via The Cauldron]
