NFL players make some really bad decisions. This is not a shocking fact to toss your way. Pro football is full of knuckle-headed fools who don’t know how good they have it until those game checks disappear.
Rolando McClain is the latest employee of the National Football League to embarrass himself, as well as hurt his team, the Dallas Cowboys. McClain missed a drug test, so he is now reportedly facing a year-long ban. Missing a drug test doesn’t sound like a big deal, and an apologist could argue that something just came up.
But a quick glance at McClain’s past tells the truth.
– Suspended four games in 2015 for a failed drug test.
– Currently serving a 10-game suspension for a failed drug test.
The guy has a big drug problem. No matter what the drug is that he can’t turn down. Even if it’s just weed.
I have no problem with the hippie lettuce and wish the League would allow it under their drug policy. It would do no harm.
– It would help many players stay off truly harmful but legal painkillers.
– It is no worse than alcohol and many people, including police officers, say they prefer dealing with folks on Mary Jane as opposed to a drunk.
– More and more states are coming onboard with modern times and allowing marijuana to be used recreationally. The NFL should at least begin to lean in that direction.
All that logic aside, rules are rules. And we don’t know for sure what drug has Rolando McClain by the balls. But even giving the linebacker the benefit of the doubt that he is just a weed head, he has just thrown away the highest paying job he will ever hold.
There will be no coming back from this year-long suspension. The fact that he didn’t have the discipline to stay clean even while he was in the midst of a 10-game ban tells us all we need to know about his priorities.
Still, it’s his own life. If he prefers getting high to getting gigantic paychecks for playing a game, then that’s his business. Just know that millions of people would kill to be in his cleats on Sundays and living the life of a highly paid athlete.
That lifestyle disappears when the game checks come to a halt. McClain can still get baked as a broke dude, but no way it’s going to be as fun as when he had the world by the tail.
He’s not the first, nor the last to let drugs trip him up. there’s plenty of celebrities and athletes out there who got derailed before they reached their potential. Not to mention all the regular Joes who let drugs jack up their average, but decent lives.
It’s just that the fall from the top of the food chain makes for bigger headlines. “Rick” down the street may go from living in a nice cul-de-sac to living in his mom’s basement because he lost his accounting job due to a failed drug test. That’s kinda sad, but a talented linebacker who could have been a long term multi-millionaire, letting drugs ruin his career is truly tragic.