Retired tight end Martellus Bennett says about 89 percent of NFL players smoke weed.
Bennett said on a Bleacher Report podcast a growing number of players are choosing marijuana over prescription painkillers due to health concerns. A well-known risk of painkillers is liver damage.
Bennett’s 89 percent figure would mean roughly 47 players out of a 53 man roster smoke weed. That would leave only six non-smokers on each team.
Players are tested for marijuana once a year between April and August. If the test is positive, a second test would be offered at a later date. It takes two positive tests for marijuana before the NFL issues a suspension. If a players passes the first test, the next test would not be until the following year.
A federal lawsuit filed by 1,800 former players last year revealed NFL teams violated federal laws on prescription drugs, such as how to store, track, transport and distribute controlled substances, according to the Washington Post.
Bennett played in Dallas, New York, Chicago, New England and Green Bay with more than 200 NFL players during his 10-year career.
“There’s a lot of these anti-inflammatories that you take for so long that, like, it starts to eat at your liver and kidneys and things like that,” Bennett told Chris Simms and Adam Lefkoe on their podcast. “And a human made that. God made weed.”