However, Waller is also the fourth NFL player this offseason to be suspended for a year, all for substance-abuse violations … all at least believed to be marijuana-related.
Two days before Waller, ESPN reported that former Bill and Steeler Karlos Williams got the one-year ban. Less than two weeks ago, it was former Brown and Steeler Justin Gilbert. Right after last regular season ended, it was the Cowboys’ Randy Gregory.
Four players, added to the list that already includes Josh Gordon, Rolando McClain and Sammie Lee Hill, and a list from which the Steelers’ Martavis Bryant just returned. At least one player each season since at least 2014, in fact, has been given that sentence.
That should be the biggest red flag of all.
As much as this topic has been beaten into the ground already, it deserves to be beaten on again until some reasonable, sensible answer is found.
In 2017, in a country continuing its gradual turn toward legalizing weed, and in a league with debilitating, often chronic pain at its foundation, why are players still getting kicked out for an entire year? Or indefinitely? Or, in practical terms, forever?
By now, we should be way past the “they have almost all year to use without penalty” argument. And the “the drug test is an IQ test” argument. And the “he deserves a year just for being so dumb” argument.
Because, honestly, what’s so smart about how the NFL is handling this?