While Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is now a strong and vocal proponent of natural health and holistic treatments, the future Hall of Famer revealed that has not always been the case.
This week, Rodgers joined the Joe Rogan Experience podcast to discuss football ahead of the start of the 2022-23 NFL season, but during his appearance, he made some shocking comments about how the NFL treats pain across the league and how easy it was to access dangerous opioids.
“The pain management, especially with our sport, is fascinating to see how things are ‘treated.’ I use quotations on treated because, up until probably a decade ago, it was easily accessible to get oxy, Percocet, Vicodin, whatever you wanted,” Rodgers told Rogan. “You played [on painkillers], definitely.”
Rodgers revealed that he actually played games while under the influence of Percocet – a heavy opioid narcotic.
“[I played] on Percocet. It was more for pain management, so I wasn’t taking any high dosage, but stupid, ultimately.”
Rodgers went on to explain that while the league has gotten better about limiting and monitoring the use of dangerous and addictive pain medication, it’s still widely prescribed throughout the league.
“It’s a** backwards, the whole treatment of professional athletes—definitely in our sport, that we’re still giving out that stuff.”
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