Lions’ DeAndre Levy thinks he knows the NFL’s next big epidemic
Detroit Lions linebacker DeAndre Levy is coming off a painful hip surgery that required a lengthy and painful rehabilitation. Naturally, he was prescribed pain medication. Interestingly, he declined to take any.
But why?
“That’s a bigger issue, but I try to stay away from them,” Levy told the Detroit Free Press. “It’s too easy to prescribe. Painkillers. Toradol. It’s just putting a Band-Aid on something, but we’re potentially developing a bigger issue for players when they’re done.”
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Indeed, the NFL chain of events happens, time and time again, as such:
Injury. Assessment. Possibly surgery (but maybe not). Rehab. Prescription.
But then what?
Any doctor worth his salt has a plan beyond this, and every diligent patient will want to obey those orders. First, let’s treat the injury all the way through. Then let’s have a plan to ween the patient off pain medications, especially the highly addictive opioids. Those merely mask pain; they possess no healing qualities. Are they taking Methadone? Cold turkey? What then?
Are those steps being taken by doctors? Are they merely pushing harmful substances without an endgame? Are NFL patients, whose health and well-being — at all costs — are their livelihoods, following orders or just being enabled? If these issues are not properly addressed, then the NFL and the NFLPA has a serious issue on its hands. It feels like they already do, per Levy.
Levy also suggests that medical marijuana might be one possible solution that must be considered.
“I think it’s something that needs to be addressed,” Levy said. “I know players, former, current and it was a time where it was very, very easy to get as many painkillers as you needed, as many sleeping pills as you needed. And if we’re talking about the health of our players, past their playing career, I think it’s definitely something that needs to at least be acknowledged and something looked into as there’s a lot of viable and growing body of research supporting it.”
Putting the doctors’ and patients’ responsibility to the side for a brief moment, Levy also outlines another sticking point: The fracture between the league and the union (vis a vis, the players themselves) has gotten to the point where there’s “there’s no trust” left.
“You can put zero trust in them, so us as players, it’s [our need to be] responsible,” Levy said. “We build the game up. We make the game what it is, people come see us play so we have a responsibility to voice our issues. People come to games to look at us, they listen to us. They don’t come to listen to Jerry Jones, they come to listen to the players on the field.”
It’s not as if the issue is brand new or hidden beneath the surface. Several NFL players have admitted to opiate addiction, and a group of more than 1,300 former players filed a class-action lawsuit against the league in 2014 for teams’ painkiller misuse. That same year, the DEA conducted surprise checks on several teams — on a Sunday, no less — to see if there was evidence of abuse of prescription medication.
So what Levy is saying is nothing new. But it is shocking and potentially epidemic if there are not changes to the way prescriptions are written, the way patients deal with their own pain and the way the NFL and NFLPA come together to find ways to prevent what could be rampant abuse.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
