Of all the things that you could cast off your good sense for and throw your chances at professional athletic success for, marijuana has got to be one of the lamest and most dumbfargelest thing out there.  The stupidity of it absolutely surpasses me.  If you work a really crappy job in a cubicle for a company whose name ends in t-e-k, then I am all behind recreational grass use.  If you work a crappy 9 to 5 for minimum wage and you have nothing else going for you, do it.  I understand that.  You are single, not much going for you, and you social activities are limited by chance or intention.  You like to play a few video games when you get home and then eat a Whopper and some onion rings.  After that, a couple three times a week, you turn on the Discovery Chanel and you burn a bowl until you get sleepy.  This is America, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that.  You are still pulling your weight as long as you are doing your job.  There is no victim.  If, however, you are drug tested at a job that will pay you millions of dollars or your free livelihood and education are dependent on clean urine from time to time, then you have no reason to be smoking marijuana.

Marijuana is not that bad of a thing.  In the grand scheme of things, its illegality makes little sense to me.  Its destructive power as a drug is minimal, and far less disturbing than many of the anti-psychotics we are putting children on.  Its power to cause an addiction is less than that of the legal drugs of alcohol or nicotine, and its result on the body in common usage is far tamer than these.  This isn’t a diatribe for the legalization of weed, I am simply setting a tone.

Regardless, the thing about weed is that it won’t dominate you like other things will, yet there are people that cannot get away from it.  For any of you that have been around a little weed, and understand the truth of its culture, you know that the real problem some people have with weed is that it places them in a subculture they cannot remove themselves from, and that the subculture becomes a crutch for them.  That culture can lead to worse things or it can simply be an avenue for justifying prolonged apathy.  What stuns me is the risk some people are willing to take for weed.

Early in 2007, Travis Henry signed a 5-year deal worth 22 million dollars with the Broncos.  Henry, who was formerly of the Bills and Titans, makes approximately 225 times what I make in a year and I graduated from college.  To compound his issue, he has fathered ”at least nine children among nine women”.  It would stand to reason that Henry would have every motivation in the world to keep himself in playing shape and on the field so in the NFL world of unguaranteed contracts, he can collect on that 22 million bucks.  Still, he has allowed his relationship with marijuana to prevent those millions of dollars from seeing his bank.  Henry was suspended for the year last season when he was tested positive for weed.  He appealed it based on the notion that it was second hand smoke.  He won and played.  He stopped showing up for work this year while he rehabbed a bum hamstring and then tested positive for weed again which led to another one year suspension and his release from the Broncos.  At the age of 29, he will probably never be seen in the NFL again. 

This is not a about thuggery.  You will not see me use the word “ghetto” in this because Henry’s home has demographics nearly identical to my own.  This is not a post about the situation of the young black male in American culture (MATT JONES!).  This is a post about opportunity and how, when you have a good job that can give you everything you need and still provide you with significant comfort, you do whatever it takes to keep your job.  Perhaps the impact of weed on sports offends me because I have no skill anyone would ever pay me for.  That might be it.  No one will pay me to do something I can do that no one else can because I can’t do anything lots of others cannot do.  Still, my only goals are to build a home in a quiet place where I can eventually die and to have a pair of Great Danes.  That is it.  That is all I want.  I have the dogs’ names picked out.

But Henry has tanked all of his NFL chances.  Weed, though clearly not the real problem, was the avenue for his dismissal.  Why, Travis, could you not stay away from it?  If you were in the business of keeping your friends entertained as many young athletes appear to be, why in the name of Heaven (if peer pressure was the culprit) would you allow them to put you in a position to jeopardize their comfort.  If they were burning all the time and you provided them with a nice house to do it in and the money to buy it, why weren’t you smart enough to stay away from it?  How stupid are you?  With 22 million dollars I could have built my house, bought my pups, provided for my crew and myself to not have to work anymore AND BUILT A HOSPITAL.  If all I had to do to get that was work out for 6 to 8 hours a day, go to practice, study a playbook and not smoke weed I would not smoke weed.  (I have actually done some math on this, I can have all of that minus building the hospital for about $320,000.  I need to sell the movie rights to the story of Cobra Brigade and I can get this to happen.)  Marijuana does not create a dependency like alcohol, coke, or even cigarettes, yet Henry’s inability to stay away from it has prevented him from getting his hands on the biggest payday he will ever have.  What skill does he have that will obtain that kind of income?  He has none that I know of, and he has no degree that I know of so his earning potential has dropped about as far as possible. 

This post isn’t even about Travis Henry, not really anyway.  I was simply trying to provide you with an endgame.  This post is really about IU quarterback Kellen Lewis.  Lewis was first part of the conversation dealing with drugs in sports on CB as far back as Jun 15, 2007.  He has been hit with disciplinary action by the IU Athletic Department before, as well as by the team.  According to my sources, all of those situations have been caused by marijuana use.  I commented before that I had seen it first hand, and heard his rather frightening (and immature) opinion on it.  Back in March, Lewis was suspended by the team “indefinitely” by Coach Bill Lynch and no details were given.  Every sane human being on the planet was under the impression that the team had tested Lewis for weed and he had failed.  I have heard, though I cannot substantiate, that this was the third or fourth university drug test he had failed.  His suspension removed him from spring practice, but now that summer workouts and tune ups are on the way, he has been reinstated with the team as of July 7^th. 

I don’t think there was ever a chance that IU was going to let marijuana end the college career of Kellen Lewis.  Though he may have had to pass clean pee to get back on the team, I suspect his tests from here on out will be rare indeed.  My concern is that he lacks (may lack) the intelligence to not waste a remarkable gift.  He was born into his success.  His father was an NFL linebacker and his mother was an All-American hurdler.  Though I am sure he may seem a receiver prospect in the NFL, I think there is a solid chance he could improve his skills to the point that he may be considered as a QB.  But the NFL, desperate to market clean players as most sports are, will not bend over backwards to give him chances like Indiana University has.  Marijuana, though it is a victimless, innocuous thing in and of itself, can rob Lewis of a stupendous financial and professional boon.  Lewis, a General Studies major, does not have much going for him scholastically, so his eggs are in the proverbial one basket.  It is my opinion, though, that if Tarvris Jackson can be an NFL QB then Lewis can, too.  He can ruin it, though.  He just has to stop burning green.  It isn’t that hard, even if you like it.  Just stop.  If you use it as glue in social constructs, play more Guitar Hero.  Tell your boys to go light up in the basement and go make yourself a sandwich in the kitchen.  Don’t go to parties with white kids who give you free weed thinking it would be cool to smoke with the quarterback.  Just don’t do these things for the next year and you will get in the NFL.  Stay out of the habit for a year and the chance stands that you may be able to hold it off for the next 5 or 6 and you can make more money than most of us ever will.  After that, before you are even 30, you can retire from the only job you ever had and smoke all the weed you want.