Toke of honesty burns 3 NFL draft prospects

Michael Conroy / AP
Wide receiver Calvin Johnson of Georgia Tech runs the 40-yard dash during
workouts at the NFL combine in February. During confidential interviews with
NFL teams, Johnson reportedly admitted to marijuana use. For no good reason,
that information was leaked, writes MSNBC.com contributer Mike Celizic.

OPINION
By Mike Celizic
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 12:33 a.m. PT April 20, 2007

Mike Celizic

Three draft prospects told scouts at the NFL combine that they smoked
marijuana but have stopped doing so. For some reason, several people found
this worthy of being leaked like a Karl Rove e-mail to Pro Football Weekly.

Whatever the reason was, it was the same one that made it worthy of an AP
story and prominent play in all the usual places.

Nowhere in the brief AP story does anyone congratulate wide-out Calvin
Johnson, defensive end Gaines Adams and defensive tackle Amobi Okoye for
their honesty. Instead, we have a discussion of the NFL’s new emphasis on
character and speculation about whether this is an example of good character
or bad.

To which the only response should be, since when is honesty bad? It only
makes you wish that guys would fess up to real issues, like domestic
violence, heavy drinking and the use of HGH and steroids. But we can be
pretty sure that’s not going to happen.

It is possible that the three — Johnson could be the top pick overall —
were simply pre-empting drug tests that they suspected would show that they
had THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in their systems. Unlike most
recreational drugs, which are water-soluble and go through the system
relatively quickly, marijuana is fat-soluble and shows up in urine tests
weeks after exposure.

In that case, it’s better to tell them up front than wait for the lab
report.

But even if that’s the case, the players know that the NFL considers
marijuana every bit as evil as steroids and they don’t dare get caught with
it in their systems once they’re in the league. So it’s probably safe to
assume they’ll behave themselves.

And who would you rather have on your team, somebody who admitted to smoking
weed or someone who might be using steroids — or someone who got into a
fight?

It must be a big deal because people leaked the information, hiding behind a
guarantee of anonymity. I don’t know what their motives were, other than to
vilify the players for something that shouldn’t even be on the NFL’s testing
menu.

These are confidential interviews. There better be a good reason for
violating that confidentiality, just as Pro Football Weekly should have a
good reason for granting sources anonymity.

I can’t see a good reason here for spilling the beans or granting anonymity.

If you’re going to smear a player in public, you should have the onions to
put your name behind it. This isn’t about pointing up a potential problem;
every team in the league has access to the confidential interview, so they’
re not hearing anything they don’t already know. The only reason to do this
is ignorance about marijuana and sheer viciousness.

I wouldn’t worry about these players getting stoned once they’re in the
league. They’re well aware of what happened to Ricky Williams. He was
suspended for an entire year for taking a supplement containing a banned
substance after two previous positive tests for marijuana.

Clearly, smoking marijuana — which a lot of NFL executives did themselves
while they were in college — is a horrible thing, even though no NFL player
to my knowledge has ever done anything incredibly stupid and illegal while
high.

Just look at the penalty levied on Williams and that imposed on Pacman
Jones. The latter was just suspended for a year for having been arrested
five times in a year and being called in for police questioning 10 times.

Unlike Williams, who had no opportunity to get time off his sentence for
good behavior, Jones could be readmitted after 10 games if he shows that he’
s a changed man.

That apparently makes sense to the NFL, but it shouldn’t anywhere else.

I’ve written before about how absurd it is to treat marijuana the same as
smoking crack or using steroids. The Olympics haven’t banned marijuana
because it’s not a performance-enhancing drug. We’ve heard plenty of stories
about athletes who’ve played drunk and high on coke and even doing acid. But
you’ve never heard about anyone throwing a no-hitter or hitting a grand slam
while stoned.

You also don’t hear about guys getting stoned and tearing apart bars or
pulling guns or doing the sort of things that alcohol is capable of
inspiring.

I know the argument: marijuana is illegal and alcohol isn’t. And I agree
that’s a good reason to stay away from it, especially if you have a real job
and want to keep it. It may not cause problems in college, where it’s still
popular. And it may not be dangerous. But it’s illegal.

Some day, it will be legalized — or at least decriminalized. More and more
states are moving in that direction, and eventually the federal government
will get the hint.

And some day, people won’t be anonymously smeared for the crime of being
honest.