The NFL will spend up to $1 million funding up to five studies that will examine how to better help players ease their pain and find alternatives to opioids.
Among those potential alternatives: marijuana and other cannabis-derived products.
The league announced its call for research proposals Tuesday. The league and the NFL Players Association formed a joint pain management committee in 2019 to help find alternatives to opioids and give players and league medical staffs information on pain management.
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical officer, said there are a lot of great ideas and important research that need to be funded.
“This is really not an NFL issue or a sports issue,” Sills said. "This is a societal issue, which is how can we better understand and treat pain and what are the alternatives that may be out there for treatment in addition to opioids which have long been used.”
Some retired NFL players, including Nate Jackson and Kyle Turley, have spoken out about their use of marijuana during their time in the league and said it's a better way of managing pain than the drugs prescribed by team doctors. The league prohibits marijuana use by players.
Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president overseeing player health and safety, said the league’s policy on substance abuse is not changing, with Tuesday’s announcement focused only on proposals and research.
The pain management committee held two forums in 2020 to learn more about cannabidiol science and manufacturing and now wants more information on how cannabinoids not only affect pain but the performance of NFL players.
Dr. Kevin Hill is co-chairman of the joint pain management committee and wrote a book titled “Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth about the World's Most Popular Weed." He said players have been asking about cannabis and cannabidiol CBD. Hill said they've tried to provide the best information on a controversial topic.
“Unfortunately, the level of interest right now far exceeds the level of evidence supporting the use of medical cannabis for pain,” Hill said.
Hill, also director of addiction psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said there are flaws in each of the controlled trials despite some evidence supporting the use of medical cannabis for pain.
“That’s why we put out this request for proposals so that we can collectively with the PA, the players association, move towards finding better treatments for pain. Those treatments may include cannabis, and they may include CBD,” Hill said.
The NFL opened the application process Tuesday. The league wants initial proposals studying how cannabinoids can help players manage pain daily and after surgery, how cannabis or cannabinoids affect players' athletic performance, and how other non-pharmaceutical treatments can benefit players.
Proposals must be submitted by July 31 with the pain management committee paring down submissions for formal presentations. Those will presented in November with a final decision the week of Dec. 6.
2021 has been a year filled with extreme weather conditions. Hundreds of thousands of people recently saw the effects of massive tornados that swept across six states. Now, experts say climate change could have played a major role. Jennifer Marlon, research scientist and lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Anthony Tall, sports agent and president of Miracle Sports Agency, joins Cheddar News to talk about the challenges professional sports leagues are facing amid a surge in coronavirus cases across the U.S.
Extreme weather hit all of us in 2021. Deadly heat hit parts of the U.S. that normally don't even need air conditioning. More than 52,000 wildfires broke out, a terrifying example of what can happen when extreme heat mixes with drought. Hurricane Ida was so powerful it actually briefly reversed the flow of the Mississippi River. Cheddar News did a deep dive into this year's unbelievable weather and how climate change may have impacted it.
With the New Year just around the corner, many people will be making new health and fitness goals. However, after the initial January push, it's easy to drop your resolutions and go back to your old habits. Joan Ifland, CEO of Food Addiction Reset, discusses her best tips for following through with New Year's Resolutions.
Carlo and Baker preview President Biden's address to the nation as Omicron becomes the new dominant Covid strain. Plus, Trump gets booed for getting his booster and the White House gets a new puppy.
Alinda Mashiku, Conjunction Analysis and Risk Assessment Deputy Manager at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, joins Future of Space: Humankind's Leap Forward to explain how space debris is threatening operations in space at a time when more satellites are being deployed.
Marshall Smith, Senior Vice President of Space Systems at Nanoracks and Kirk Shireman, Vice President of the Lunar Exploration Campaign at Lockheed Martin join Future of Space: Humankind's Leap Forward to discuss upcoming plans for developing their Starlab commercial space station after being awarded a $160 million contract by NASA.
The CDC recently endorsed the advisory committee's recommendation that people should receive the Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccines over the Johnson & Johnson shot, leaving some questions and concerns for the public. Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, spoke to Cheddar about the shift in the agency's stance, and what it might mean. "If you already have it, any side effects are already long past," he said. "Going forward is what they're saying. That getting a booster you should get the Moderna or the Pfizer booster, and I don't think they're encouraging anyone to get de novo Johnson & Johnson as their first shot anymore."
The billionaire space race took off in 2021, making major strides in space tourism. That growth is only expected to skyrocket in the next year, as the government and private institutions and companies look to shape the final frontier's exploration. Cheddar News dives into the biggest moments of the year in space, and what comes next for space travel and tourism.
Chloe and Halle Bailey are no strangers to hard work. The sisters got their start performing covers on YouTube and have become a force in the music industry. Since then, the two have spread their wings beyond their duo group to individual projects. Now they're coming together to face off in the LG OLED Ultimate Gaming Showdown. Chloe and Halle join Cheddar News to discuss.
