Teams not only distributed painkillers but alcohol after games on trips home - a deadly combination.

Kyle Turley remembers the plane rides home when he first came into the NFL, those hours spent folding his 6-foot-5 frame into an airline seat after a Sunday afternoon full of violent collisions with other 300-pound men.
An offensive lineman for eight years with the Saints, Rams and Chiefs who retired after the 2007 season, Turley said it was commonplace to find comfort in the form of two Miller Lites. But the real relief, Turley said, would come when members of the Saints' medical staff routinely handed out the prescription painkiller Vicodin on the flights home. ...
"The trainers and the doctors used to go down the aisle and say, 'Who needs what?'" Turley said. "If you had something hurting and needed a painkiller to take the edge off so you could sleep that night, they made sure you had it."
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