by: Derek Douglass
In a full contact sport like football, pain is something players know very well. Every player is always looking for that edge they need, something to keep them on the field at all times while performing at the highest level. They need a go-to option. They look for that option in pain killers, which they are pressured to take by team doctors. This is a dark side of the league that needs to be addressed.
Playing through pain is something every professional football player prides themselves on. But, when the will to push through it just isn’t enough, the pain needs to be cured. That cure is the use of the anti-inflammatory drug called Toradol, which is used for “short-term management of moderately severe acute pain.”
From the outside, reading that definition makes it seem as though the drug is simply just a pain reliever. To know the full danger, it is important to look further into the drug. Long term use of the drug could cause addiction, as its label states that total use of the drug should not exceed five days.
So what happens if a player takes it every week for an entire season? That’s a very troubling thought, considering the amount of damage the drug is doing on a player’s liver and kidneys. Some of the side effects of Toradol include heart attack, stroke, renal failure, internal bleeding and gastrointestinal bleeding.
The bottom line is, Toradol is not safe.
What’s astonishing is that doctors were advocating use of Toradol for players to help their pain.
As a player, you look at your doctor as a trained, licensed professional, and you buy into everything they say.
“I was complaining of a lot of pain in my leg, so I allowed the doctors on my team to advise me that it wasn’t that big of a deal, and they told me to let them shoot me up with this and that it will take away my pain, and continue to allow me to play,” former NFL player Kyle Turley said of Toradol.
What are the doctor’s motives in these situations? It’s hard to distinguish whether they care more about the business of the sport or the players themselves.
The long term effects on players can be brutal. In exiting the league after your career ends, you no longer have medical coverage. After numbing pain for the duration of their careers, players feel the lasting effects after they retire.
“I had a 3.8 GPA in college, now I can barely read or write. I got glaucoma, I can’t see. The dementia is really starting to take a toll on me, that’s enough to make you want to commit suicide,” Keith McCants, a former NFL linebacker, said. “Before it was over, I was consuming 180 pills a week, not knowing the affects it had on my liver and kidneys.”
The NFL cares more about pumping their players full of pain pills and rushing them back onto to the field than actually caring about their players. This new era of playing numb needs to come to an end, and it must end now. If it doesn’t, soon enough, players will be lining up to sue Roger Goodell and the rest of the league. Each player will have a case, as they have been misled to consume these harmful pain pills. The league and its players are all at a huge risk by avoiding this issue. The care of NFL players needs to change before it’s too late.