Is NFL Going to Pot?

It's easy to be "high" on this year's NFL draft class.

OK, that was too easy a play on words, but what do you expect when a recent report claims that over one-third of all college prospects for this year's NFL draft have tested positive for marijuana use? Since marijuana is still illegal (like it or not), this on the surface doesn't look good for anybody who's involved. But should it really be all that surprising? And, bottom line, should it really matter?

In a bigger context, pot use barely registers on the controlled substances radar screen. I can't think of a single sport where marijuana is performance enhancing (unless maybe it's a hot dog eating contest) so it's not like these college athletes are toking up to become bigger, stronger, faster. That's where NFL GMs should be concerned if they think a marijuana smoker is prone to lethargy. It seems as if they're afraid of drafting another Ricky Williams, but pot has never seemed to affect his performance between the lines.

Keep in mind these are college kids we're talking about. Those are likely the most experimental times in a young man's (or woman's) life, for better or worse. If we were to look down upon everybody who partook in the chronic as young (or not so young) adults, some of the most accomplished and intelligent people in society might not have been allowed to rise to such, ahem, high positions.

The NFL draft is scheduled to start on April 22, or 4/22. But considering the level of marijuana use among those who are considered prospects, maybe 4/20 would be a more appropriate date. If you find that confusing, it just shows what end of the spectrum you stand on as far as marijuana awareness.

It's Not Small-Time

For most of last week, I knew I'd be going down to Levelland for the Region I-1A boys basketball tournaments, an assignment which at first glance doesn't appear to be glamorous. Maybe not, but it was a rare opportunity to cover small schools playing at a high level, and it was every bit as rewarding as covering the larger schools in the area.

With four Panhandle schools playing at the Texan Dome (an excellent traditional regional tournament venue by the way), I knew I'd be covering four games during Friday afternoon and evening, making for a long day. But in all the years I've been covering prep basketball, I'm hard-pressed to find a more rewarding day of watching high school hoops.

I've covered two boys state tournaments in Austin with various classifications, and Friday's games in particular felt like being at the state tournament, perhaps largely because of the scheduling (the two Division II games played back-to-back in the afternoon followed by a short break with two Division I games in the evening) and the amount of basketball packed into one day. There might not have been any big-time college prospects, but that didn't mean the level of play was uninspired in the least.

The two Panhandle survivors from Levelland, Gruver and Nazareth, are headed to Austin to see how they stack up against the rest of the state. And yes, that's as big as it gets for high school basketball in the state of Texas. But even in Levelland players _ and fans _ can get a taste of what it's like, without having to fight unmanagable crowds.

Now if only Levelland would get a Stubb's Barbecue...

Shooting the Messenger

Two incidents involving the sports media this week show how misguided that anger over revelations of transgressions can be on the part of players and coaches.

Easily the most appalling of the two incidents came in Commerce. Several Texas A&M Commerce football players removed copies of the university's daily from racks around campus because they revealed that some players had been arrested on drug charges. That in and of itself is kind of petty, and when you consider that most college publications (like many alternative weeklies) are available free of charge, the act could be considered, at worst, recklessly immature.

But the most egregious result of the incident was the reaction of head coach Guy Morriss. Not only did Morriss not elect to discipline those allegedly involved (who stand charged of petty theft and vandalism), but he actively applauded what his players did, saying it helped unity and team-building.

You have some of your players get arrested on drug charges, and when it gets reported publicly, you think it's OK for their teammates to stifle this information in the name of team-building? What's next coach, encouraging stealing candy from kids on Halloween as a harmless exercise in bonding? Where do you draw the line? Car theft? Date rape?

Was that the problem at Baylor, Guy? You went 18-40 there because you didn't have enough irresponsible thugs on your roster? Maybe a few more misdemeanors might have meant a Big 12 championship.

The other media-related incident is a little funnier. PGA train wreck John Daly "outed" a reporter from the Jacksonville Times-Union (a paper which, like the Globe-News, is owned by Morris Communications) for writing a story regarding Daly's various suspensions and warnings by the PGA Tour regarding his behavior. Never mind that it was public record, Daly also decided to make the writer's number public, somehow procuring his cell phone number and tweeting it to the world.

It's hard to imagine what Daly was trying to hide, since his life has been an open book long before Tiger Woods bimbo of the week revelations. Is this just a desperate grab for attention to promote his reality show on the Golf Channel? We already know more about Daly than we need to, so his resenting somebody digging up some dirt on him seems silly.

But unlike A&M Commerce, at least it doesn't seem criminal.

Why Not Football?

Maybe you got caught up in the final night of the Olympics from Vancouver (even with the silliness of the closing ceremonies) watching the U.S. and Canada fight it out for the hockey gold medal, and it was kind of easy to get emotionally involved. Our national pride took a hit with the overtime loss to Canada, but the news isn't really that bad. Hey, we won the overall medal count, and after all, hockey is to Canada what football is to Americans.

In that spirit I submit a modest proposal, one which when I've suggested before has people look at me as if I'm nuts, a look I'm used to. With the world becoming a "global village" more and more, I think athletically us Americans should leave our stamp on it every four years. So I'm suggesting adding a sport which the IOC or USOC has never even touched: Football.

With exhibition and regular season games being played in Britain, Japan and Australia and a developmental league which once thrived in Europe (and produced a Super Bowl winning quarterback in Kurt Warner), the sport is far more international than it's given credit for. It's about time that we see competition in an international arena.

I know what many of you might be thinking: The U.S. is the only "real" football nation, and we'd wipe the floor with anybody who'd even step on the field with us. Foreign athletes could be seriously injured, or even worse by Americans. Well, yeah.

But it can become an Olympic sport by taking baby steps. For the first Olympiad (or two), it could be flag football, allowing other nations to get their feet wet in the sport. Then once these countries have developed enough capable athletes to play full contact football, it could be played by North American rules, maybe with some Pro Bowl modifications (e.g., no blitzes) thrown in for increased offense.

That doesn't sound unreasonable, does it? Lets see those Canucks beat us then!