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  1. #1
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    NFL Court Filings Show Team Abuse of Painkillers, Other Drugs

    Lawyers representing more than 1,800 NFL players in a lawsuit against each of the 32 NFL teams and their trainers and doctors over damages have unearthed documents showing that NFL teams regularly broke the law in the distribution of painkillers and other drugs to players. It also raises the question of what is happening in the CFL.

    National Football League teams violated federal laws governing prescription drugs, disregarded guidance from the Drug Enforcement Administration on how to store, track, transport and distribute controlled substances, and plied their players with powerful painkillers and anti-inflammatories each season, according to sealed court documents contained in a federal lawsuit filed by former players. ...
    Federal law lays out strict guidelines for how teams can handle and dispense prescription drugs. The sealed court filing, which includes testimony and documents by team and league medical personnel, describes multiple instances in which team and league officials were made aware of abuses, record-keeping problems and even violations of federal law and were either slow in responding or failed to comply.
    The filing, which was prepared by lawyers for the players suing the league, asserts that “every doctor deposed so far . . . has testified that they violated one or more” federal drug laws and regulations “while serving in their capacity as a team doctor.” Anthony Yates, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ team doctor and past president of the NFL Physicians Society, testified in a deposition that “a majority of clubs as of 2010 had trainers controlling and handling prescription medications and controlled substances when they should not have,” the filing states. ...
    The details and communications were unearthed by lawyers representing more than 1,800 former professional football players who are suing the league in U.S. District Court in Northern California, claiming they suffer long-term organ and joint damage, among other maladies, as a result of improper and deceptive drug distribution practices by NFL teams. ...
    The court filing reveals that the teams dispensed painkillers and prescription-strength anti-inflammatories in numbers far beyond anything previously acknowledged or made public. In the calendar year of 2012, for example, the average team prescribed nearly 5,777 doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and 2,213 doses of controlled medications to its players, according to a March 2013 internal document from Lawrence Brown, the NFL-employed medical adviser who oversees its drug issues. ...

    Those numbers could average out to about six to seven pain pills or injections a week per player over the course of a typical NFL season, but sports medicine experts noted that it’s unlikely the drugs were distributed evenly over the entire roster and just as unlikely that team logs represent the full extent of medications players seek out to manage pain.
    “It sounds like an incredible amount of intervention with some pretty risky drugs, some of which, in the case of Vicodin, have a high addiction potential,” said Arthur Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center and co-founder of the NYU Sports and Society Program. “It makes you think, are the physicians looking out for the health of the players, or are they just trying to keep them on the field?” ...

    The filing likens painkillers to performance-enhancing drugs and says while players often felt compelled to use them to contribute to their teams, medical staffs felt pressured to administer them to remain competitive. A February 2006 memo included in the court filing was from the Minnesota Vikings’ head trainer, Eric Sugarman. Writing to then-head coach Brad Childress and the team’s vice president for operations, the trainer said he had met for three hours with team physician David Fischer and lamented that the Vikings were not regularly using a powerful painkiller called Toradol, as other teams were.
    “I expressed my concern that [the Vikings] are at a competitive disadvantage. . . . I feel very strongly about this point,” he wrote. “. . . I feel that Dr. Fischer is beginning to see my point of view on many issues. I also feel he is willing to change to improve.” ...
    In their filing, the players’ lawyers cite multiple instances in which team executives and league officials were made aware of issues surrounding the handling of pain medication. League medical advisers Brown and Elliott Pellman communicated with team physicians on issues such as medication abuse and attended meetings of the NFL Physicians Society. For example, the complaint cites a 1998 meeting of the society in which Brown reported that during an audit, at least “5 teams were in noncompliance with controlled substances.” ...
    The former players say the teams intentionally disregarded federal laws and openly acknowledged their compliance problems. In the complaint, lawyers say “numerous documents obtained during discovery show how Clubs and their doctors and trainers concealed their illegal activities for years.” ...
    Federal law bars nonlicensed team personnel, such as athletic trainers, from dispensing medication. The complaint cites multiple instances in which clubs were warned about this practice, including letters from Brown to the Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs and Tennessee Titans.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...=.46486ee60f09
    Last edited by jerrym; 03-12-2017 at 01:31 PM.

  2. #2
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    SB Nation comments on the lawsuits, including specific examples that I have not directly quoted.

    The NFL and NFL teams have been screwing up science for a long time. It took the league more than a decade to admit the link between football and CTE that Dr. Bennet Omalu published in 2005. Last year, the New York Times found that an NFL committee omitted at least 100 concussions from a database it used to downplay the prevalence of head injuries. Later, the Times found that the NFL was perpetuating unsubstantiated claims that a youth football safety program reduced injuries. ...
    Allegations of painkiller abuse in NFL locker rooms have existed for a long time, but they have largely stemmed from players. The court filings claim that team doctors and trainers across the league may have been willfully negligent when distributing drugs like Vicodin and Toradol. According to the filings, “every doctor deposed so far” has testified to violating one or more federal drug laws and regulations.
    In past instances when the NFL or NFL teams have been accused of negligence towards player health, they could claim ignorance. The league’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee published several studies claiming no definitive link between CTE and football, essentially saying that the science is inconclusive. When concussions went undocumented in those studies, the league said that its database was never meant to be comprehensive, making itself out to be hapless. There is little ambiguity in the court filings, however. ...
    The lawsuit quotes an unattributed remark from the minutes of the conference call: “We don’t want to give them the fodder that we have all been doing this wrong. We don’t want to show our deficiencies.”
    The fact that NFL teams use painkillers more frequently than the general population could be assumed, but the extent of their use may be shocking. According to the filings, the average NFL team prescribed 5,777 doses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs — NSAIDs — and 2,213 doses of controlled medications, which would include opioids, in 2012. The Post estimated that those numbers could average out to “six to seven pain pills or injections a week per player over the course of a typical NFL season.”
    The extent of prescription drug use in the NFL may be even greater than reported if teams logs were improperly maintained as the lawsuit alleges. Teams may have gone to other lengths to conceal their activities, too. The lawsuit claims that NFL teams were tipped off in 2014 to a DEA raid that turned up no controlled substances. The implications of the Post’s report is that NFL team doctors appear to have been participants in a cover up. Not only did they administer prescription drugs outside of their indications, the lawsuit alleges, but they kept NFL players in the dark.
    Bud Carpenter, the Buffalo Bills’ longtime trainer, “admitted under oath that he witnessed team doctors give players injections of prescription medications without telling them what the drug was they were receiving or its side effects.
    Of particular focus is Toradol, the powerful NSAID that became the NFL’s drug of choice over the course of two decades. The story mentions Dr. Matthew Matava, who was the St. Louis Rams’ team doctor before they relocated to Los Angeles. He led a 2012 task force on Toradol that recommended that teams curb its usage, though the task force did not lead to NFL regulation. Last year, Matava spoke with SB Nation and reiterated that team doctors were free to exercise their own discretion.
    In emails unearthed from the court filings, however, Matava was much more critical of his colleagues.
    According to the sealed court filing, months after the task force issued its recommendations, Matava emailed Yates, the Steelers’ doctor, questioning the team physicians who failed to respond to surveys regarding Toradol usage. “If these guys want to give Toradol because they think it is needed or acceptable, then they should ... say so. What are they afraid of?” Matava, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote in the same email that “[c]ontinued use of Toradol in the present climate is not rational.”
    There are a number of reasons why team doctors would be so liberal with drug prescriptions. They face pressure from both sides — from NFL front offices and coaches who want to win, and from players who need to stay on the field to maintain their livelihoods — to keep players pain free. For the most part, the NFL has been able to sweep allegations as the result of good-intentioned people screwing up.
    The painkiller lawsuit paints an entirely different picture, casting even more doubt on every stance the NFL has ever taken on player health.
    http://www.sbnation.com/2017/3/10/14...ully-negligent

  3. #3
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    Just to add that the average American is also overprescribed and they're not even close to being professional football players. There's a medication problem nationwide and the NFL is just apart of it.

  4. #4
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    This is a serious issue that should not be trivialized. Following up on the NFL concussion lawsuit, the NHL is now facing litigation on this issue. I suspect that similar lawsuits over illegal distribution of painkillers without full revelation of side effects will occur in hockey and other sports over time.

    http://www.tsn.ca/judge-in-nhl-concu...-year-1.692302

  5. #5
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    I don't think anyone should be shocked by this TBH.
    Toronto Argonauts
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  6. #6
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    While opioid abuse is widespread in society, the use of painkillers in sports and especially in contact sports like football is well beyond that of the overall population.

    The explosion in opioid use in the past two decades has been described as one of the great mistakes of modern medicine. From 1999 to 2014, sales of opioids quadrupled in the U.S — and so did the number of opioid related overdose deaths. Death rates now rival those of AIDS during the 1990s, with overdoses from prescription opioids and heroin killing more than 27,000 people a year.
    This alarming trend is clearly on display in the rampant use and abuse of opioids by our young athletes today. Playing through injuries and pain has always been a part of sports. But now, as many top professional athletes sign contracts and endorsement deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the pressure to succeed in sports has never been higher.
    Nowhere is this growing epidemic more evident than in our National Football League, with two huge lawsuits recently brought against the league. The lawsuits allege, amongst other things, that the overuse of narcotic pain medications has significantly contributed to the problems of concussion, CTE, addiction, and some of the other devastating medical problems players are facing at the end of their careers.
    Not only professional athletes have problems caused by easily obtainable narcotic pain medications — this is also a serious issue among high school and college athletes.

    Because of the arduous physical demands of training and competition, these younger athletes are at a particularly high risk of acute pain from injuries. In the most recent NCAA survey, 23 percent of college athletes reported receiving a prescription for a pain medication and 6 percent reported using an opioid without a prescription in the prior year.
    In high school we see the same thing, with several national studies showing that youth highly involved in competitive sports are at greater risk of being prescribed opioid medications, misusing opioid medications, and being approached to share these opioid medications. ...
    What is clear is that those of us who are caring for these athletes must do a better job. It starts with being much more vigilant in our prescribing practices, as well as using alternative pain control strategies that have proven to be highly effective. There is good evidence that relying on opioids for pain control actually leads to worse clinical outcomes. In our practice, we believe it is essential to focus on a multimodal approach to pain management that includes the appropriate rehabilitation, cold therapy, early mobility, healthy diet, anti-inflammatory medications, and patient education.
    It is imperative that we educate athletes on the significant risk associated with using prescription painkillers, which is something we have largely ignored in the past. It is also critical that we address the culture surrounding our athletes today. That starts with parents, coaches, family and friends.
    http://www.mcall.com/brandpublishing...003-story.html

  7. #7
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    A study of opioids among retired NFL players confirms the extent of the problem:

    Retired NFL players misuse opioid pain medications at a rate more than four times that of the general population, and new evidence suggests that is occurring because players misused the painkillers during their NFL careers, according to a study published online in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, a peer-reviewed, scientific journal.

    The study, conducted by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, is the first of painkiller use and misuse by former NFL players. Directed by Linda Cottler, a professor of epidemiology in Washington University's Department of Psychiatry, the study was commissioned by ESPN, with additional funding provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

    This is important because of the public health implications for players of sports all over the world," Cottler said of the research.
    "Clearly, this study indicates we're not doing enough to care for our wounded and impaired athletes," said Dr. Wilson Compton, who served from 1995 to 2002 as a treating clinician in the NFL's substance abuse program and is now division director for NIDA.

    Key findings:
    • 52 percent of the retired players said they used prescription pain medication during their playing days. Of those, 71 percent said they misused the drugs then, and 15 percent of the misusers acknowledged misusing the medication within the past 30 days.
    • Those who misused prescription painkillers while playing were three times more likely to misuse the drugs today than those who used the pills as prescribed while playing.
    • 63 percent of the retired players who used prescription pain pills while playing obtained the medications from a nonmedical source: a teammate, coach, trainer, family member, dealer or the Internet. ...
    From March to August 2010, Cottler's research team interviewed 644 former NFL players by telephone. The players who participated in the research retired from the NFL between 1979 and 2006, played an average of 7.6 seasons, and averaged 48 years in age. Researchers asked them a series of questions about their health, pain levels, NFL-related injuries and their use and misuse of prescription painkillers and other substances. ...

    When asked about their prescription painkiller use within the past 30 days, 7 percent of the retired players surveyed said they either used more prescription pain medication than prescribed by their doctors, used the medication without a prescription at all, or both.
    "That's a very large number in a population that, at that age, we wouldn't expect to see much use of these substances at all," Compton said. "Most typical 30- and 40-year olds aren't taking pain relievers, and they're not misusing them, so that's a much higher than expected rate."
    The rate of current misuse of prescription pain medications within the general population age 26 and older is 1.6 percent, according to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an assessment conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The rate of misuse within the past 30 days for men older than 26 is 2.5 percent, according to the latest SAMHSA drug survey.
    "[The former players] are three times as likely as men their age in the general population to be misusing prescription opioids right now. I think that's a lot," Cottler said. ...
    Dan Johnson, who played tight end for the Miami Dolphins in the mid-1980s, said he became addicted to painkillers after two back surgeries that were necessary because of injuries he suffered as a player."I was taking about a thousand Vicodins a month," he said. "You know, people go 'That's impossible. You're crazy.' No, that was exactly what I was taking." ...He said he acquired the drugs through acquaintances, over the Internet and from overseas shipments. He broke so many bones during his playing days that teammates called him "The King of Pain." Yet his addiction to painkillers had him contemplating suicide. "A few times," he said, struggling to control his emotions. ...

    According to the Washington University researchers, three main variables predicted the current misuse of prescription pain medications by retired players versus nonuse: significant pain, undiagnosed concussions and heavy drinking.
    "We were shocked to learn that [current prescription painkiller] misuse is really associated with undiagnosed concussions, and heavy drinking," Cottler said. Of those former NFL players who said they did not currently use prescription painkillers within the past 30 days, 8 percent had 20 or more drinks in that same period. Of the retired players who said they misused opioids in the past 30 days, 27 percent had 20 or more drinks in that same time period. "There's a major concern that the risk of overdose and death is markedly increased if you're drinking on top of taking painkillers," Compton said. "That would be the No. 1 concern I would have. … Some of these men are reporting very heavy levels of alcohol consumption."
    "Mixing alcohol and pain pills, that's really scary," said Bob Newton, a former lead counselor at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Newton is also a former offensive lineman who played 11 years for the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks. ...

    According to sources cited by the Washington University researchers, 26 percent of the general population suffers from some level of pain. But of the 644 former NFL players surveyed, 93 percent suffered some level of pain, and 73 percent described their pain as moderate to severe.





    http://www.espn.com/espn/eticket/sto...ainkillersnews
    Last edited by jerrym; 03-15-2017 at 12:33 AM.

  8. #8
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    HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel in a January 2015 broadcast documents the problems faced by the 1985 Chicago Bears players now.
    The 1985 Chicago Bears are regarded as one of the toughest teams in football history. But in the 2015 debut of HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, the world learns just how difficult things are for the group 20 years or more removed from football. ...
    Quarterback Jim McMahon told Gumbel if he'd "had a gun, I probably wouldn't be here.""When I first heard about these guys killing themselves, I couldn't figure out how they could do that. But I was having those thoughts myself," McMahon said. "Feelings of inadequacy. And just like you're a dumbass. Once the pain starts getting that bad, you figure you'll take the only way out. If I would've had a gun, I probably wouldn't be here." McMahon previously admitted he has contemplated suicide, but his struggles are still revelatory; McMahon told Gumbel sometimes he just lays in his room "for days ... weeks" and "stare[s] at the ceiling fan." The quarterback also spoke openly about the number of "painkillers" he took, including "100 [Percocets] a month" at one point. ...

    "There was always just bowls of pills sitting out," McMahon said. "You know, black ones, white ones, green ones, red ones, you know. I was on painkillers my last 11 years in the league. I was eating 100 Percs a month just to function."
    Hall of Fame defensive lineman Richard Dent also painted a portrait of abundant postgame pain relievers.
    "You passing out alcohol on the plane coming home, and you passing out meds too," Dent said.
    Dent also spoke openly about the number of shots he saw McMahon receive to ease the pain when playing.
    "I mean, they're sticking him everywhere," Dent said. "One game, I watched them stick him in the butt, and the arms, and the shoulder, and the hand."
    Former Bears coach turned ESPN analyst Mike Ditka also spoke with HBO for the feature. Gumbel candidly asks him about "needles" and "pills" being "plentiful" in those days. Ditka doesn't deny the players' assertions.
    "Well, they were plentiful. There's no question about it," Ditka says. "Now, who are you mad at? The team? Are you mad at the league? Are you mad at the sport? Are you mad at me? You're not going to cure them right now.
    "It's only going to get worse. It ain't going to get better."
    http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24970529/bears-talk-suicide-pills-post-nfl-struggles-in-new-hbo-real-sports

    Last edited by jerrym; 03-15-2017 at 12:47 AM.

  9. #9
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    In refusing to dismiss the players lawsuit against the NFL, Judge Alsup who had dismissed an earlier lawsuit because he said the players' collective bargaining agreement provided the best way of resolving the issue,:

    Noted the new lawsuit claims the teams' conduct was "intentional," as opposed to "negligent," and thus illegal. Players contend they were routinely and indiscriminately given powerful painkillers, often without prescriptions or even a cursory exam, to mask pain and injuries and get them back on the field without regard for their long-term health.
    "When asked about side effects of medications, club doctors and trainers responded, `none,' `don't worry about them,' `not much,' `they are good for you,' or, in the case of injections, `maybe some bruising," Alsup wrote, referring to what he called the "well-pled facts" of the players' previous claim.
    "These answers misrepresented the actual health dangers posed by these drugs," the judge added.
    Steve Silverman, the lead plaintiffs' attorney in both lawsuits, said "the court has opened the doors of justice for those players who were illegally drugged, used, abused and discarded by the NFL teams."

  10. #10
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    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."
    http://www.espn.com/espn/eticket/sto...lersCurrentUse

  11. #11
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    The danger of opioid abuse is reflected in the fact that opioids now kill more people than automobile accidents in the U.S., the number one consumer of opioids (Canada ranks second in the world).

    Opioid-related overdoses, including heroin deaths, alone killed more than four and a half times as many people statewide as motor vehicle accidents during the first half of 2015, according to data from the state public health department and the National Safety Council. ...
    A total of 43,982 people died from drug overdoses — including 16,235 from opioid painkillers and 8,257 from heroin — while 32,719 people died in car crashes, according to the 2013 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
    Drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2013, the CDC said. Since 2000, the rate of drug overdose deaths has more than doubled, from 6.2 per 100,000 in 2000 to 13.8 per 100,000 in 2013.
    https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...tLO/story.html

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