The OTAs and minicamp have concluded and the players have the next six weeks off. Most will go home and have backyard barbecues and some will pose for mug shots. The 49ers are holding their breath that Reuben Foster does not appear in the latter somes.
For the rookies, it’s a good time to form your official NFL entourage. These groups consist of losers the player grew up with who now feel entitled to share in the player’s new found fame and wealth. For the player, it shows he hasn’t abandoned his roots and also allows him to feel like a massive big shot.
These groups will invariably consist of some serious pot heads and drunks, a mix that makes nightclub hopping a dangerous threat to a player’s career.
Reuben got busted for smoking weed in Alabama, which is very seriously stupid. I smoked dope for 35+ years without ever once coming close to a bust. Of course, I never made the mistake of sitting in a car at 3:00am huffing away on a city street, either.
When I first lit up, the only dope around was Mexican weed that had stems and seeds in it. You had to sift out the seeds before you could use it. It came in baggies called “lids.” It was nothing like the super dope that’s around now. You had to buy hash back then to get the sort of high that today’s weed supplies.
The NFL remains one of the last bastions of anti-weedness. In my day, a weed bust was serious jail time. Now it’s more or less a misdemeanor or an excuse for a cop to hassle you. More and more states are making it legal. But not the NFL.
At any rate, for the nonce you NFL guys, do your toking at home and have a normal short career, rather than a drug testing nightmare career.