Tyrann Mathieu finally signed his contract with the Arizona Cardinals after a lengthy negotiation. The discussion was necessary because Tyrann Mathieu is as close to marijuana addict as there is.
Though there isn't much scientific evidence to support marijuana addiction (there is “scant evidence” showing dependence to it, stating that up to 9 percent of users can develop some sort of addiction), Mathieu certainly acted like a fiend and put the drug above all else, failing multiple drug tests at LSU before getting kicked out of school and eventually arrested. Whether he was addicted or just stubborn and stupid doesn't really matter: That kind of behavior doesn't fly in the NFL.
So the Cards put all kinds of regulatory language in his contract, and Mathieu won't get paid his full signing bonus if he gets kicked off the team for failing drug tests over the next three years. He only received $265,000 dollars up front, the lowest number of any player taken in the third round in five years.
He'll have to be careful. He has entered the NFL's drug testing program, which means he could be subjected to as many as 10 drugs tests per month. While this makes perfect sense for the Arizona Cardinals, the NFL's drug testing program is still a complete joke.
The fact that Tyrann Mathieu faces serious consequences for smoking a little weed, but no one faces any consequences for taking HGH, which the NFL does not test for, is an outrage.
Marijuana is going to be legal in the near future, as the dominos have already begun falling, which means the only reason to test for marijuana is because it's potentially a performance dehancing drug (new word alert). But the NFL doesn't need to worry about that, teams do.
They also need to worry about the especially large human beings they employ, getting even bigger and stronger, in a game that is becoming faster and more violent. People are dying because of injuries sustained while playing football, and 2,000 former players are suing the NFL because of it. They are not dying because strong safeties are smoking weed.
In fact, strong safeties who do smoke weed might live longer, with new research detailing marijuana's link to decreasing bladder cancer and diabetes (and PTSD, and loneliness, and lung cancer).
I get that this is an issue for government and not the NFL, but the hypocrisy remains. 50 people have been suspended for PED's since the NFL started testing, and rumors hit the news in April that players use HGH “like clockwork.”
The NFL is fighting a fake problem instead of dealing with a real one, and it could cost them as more cautious parents, even parents in the NFL, think twice about letting their kids play.
