NFL teams repeatedly ignored federal drug laws while pumping players full of mind-blowing amounts of addictive opiate painkillers, a federal lawsuit filed by former NFL players details.
The document alleges the amount of drugs doled out by NFL teams, the careless handling of the drugs, and a callous attitude toward laws governing how the treatments should be distributed. Here’s the description of an email from the Minnesota Vikings’ head trainer scolding his staff for “week 17’s fiasco,” which included an entire missing bottle of drugs. The DEA surprised six teams in 2014 with spot inspections; the lawsuit alleges a DEA employee tipped the teams off before the shakedowns. The lawsuit also alleges that teams repeatedly ignored DEA guidance about the transport and security of controlled substances.
The document, originally filed in February, was heavily redacted; the Washington Post revealed some of those redacted details on Thursday, and Deadspin has acquired the fully unredacted court filing from the federal court; it can be read in its entirety below. (Portions with a black background are those redacted in the filing; both parties in the suit agreed to seal this information, which emerged in the course of discovery for the lawsuit.)
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