An NFL lineman who abruptly retired midway through last season because of concerns over the game’s effect on the brain was arrested in Chicago over the weekend on drug possession charges. Police in Cook County, Illinois arrested John Moffitt after he struck a man on the head who inquired about drugs. The cops found a gram of cocaine, four ecstasy pills, and some marijuana on Moffitt.
Moffitt spent nearly three seasons in the NFL as an offensive lineman playing for the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Bronocos. The cops in those locales would have let him slide on the marijuana charge. But coke and ecstasy remain illegal everywhere in the U.S., and someone ought to tell Moffitt that hitting people in the head can cause brain injuries, too. Oh, yeah. And smoking pot, and snorting lines, and doing X–that’s helmet-to-helmet bad for your brain, which is why the cops threw a yellow flag on all that.
The former University of Wisconsin sociology major, who reported that reading Noam Chomsky and exposure to the teachings of the Dalai Lama prompted a career reevaluation, hoped to grow his own food in retirement. Many penitentiaries allow inmates to do that.
“I’m not trying to be the poster boy for ‘Oh, I thought I should leave because of concussions,'” the guard explained in November. “I’m just saying, it’s a valid point. I love the game and I respect the game and everybody who plays it knows what they risk and I knew what I risked when I played, and I’m no longer willing to risk it.”
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