NFL could learn a thing or two from XFL’s accommodating cannabis policy

Upstart football league returns to field with brash attitude and modern view of pain management

There’s a new football league in town and it couldn’t care less about cannabis.

One week after the NFL season wrapped up for the year, the XFL made its return to the gridiron last weekend after playing just a single season when the league first launched in 2001, according to Merry Jane.

The brainchild of WWE mastermind Vince McMahon, the hope is to stick around a little longer this time after getting off to a good start.

All eight teams were in action over the weekend as the XFL showcased some unique rules and features designed to differentiate it from the NFL and bring in new fans and players alike. The league has changed kickoffs to make them safer, made its officiating crews more inclusive, added three-point conversions and, somehow, made its cheerleaders even more scantily clad. But it is the XFL’s treatment of cannabis that might do the most to ensure its survival.

“Our drug testing policy includes (performance-enhancing drugs) but it does not include marijuana,” XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Football is a notoriously violent game that takes a huge toll on the bodies of its athletes.

There were 281 reported concussions across the NFL in 2017, a glaring trend that has forced many of the game’s top players to retire and still healthy, motivated others to increase pressure on the league to allow the use of cannabis to treat injuries. Major league baseball recently stopped testing players for the drug, but the NFL insists that research has not been adequate to drop the ban.

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