Oregon Football: ESPN Exposes Worst-Kept Secret in College Athletics

In a "shocking" report, ESPN has revealed that some college football players like to smoke marijuana. Let me give you a second for that to absorb into the realm of the brain where comprehension is at least possible, because there's more. 

The report alleges that players at the University of Oregon, located in one of the Grateful Dead's favorite stops of Eugene, are particularly fond of partaking in the reefer madness. 

The report will be in ESPN The Magazine, but a summary and excerpts by Sam Alipour appear on their website.

The article is filled with quotes from current and past Oregon football players about smoking marijuana, and one anonymous player guesstimates that half of the team smokes, which falls exactly in line with the 40-to-60 percent that Alipour reported hearing from past players regarding the level of marijuana use on their Oregon teams. 

Do those high percentages shock you? Are you blown away that a team that has played at such a high level can be riddled with such widespread drug use? It shouldn't. 

Alipour provided us with the following stat addressing increased marijuana abuse: 

"

...according to an NCAA study released in January, 22.6 percent of athletes -- up 1.4 percentage points from the previous study in 2005. College football players (26.7 percent) ranked the highest among major sports.

"

Checking in at over one-fourth of the football players, smoking marijuana is probably more common among that group than doing laundry. 

Sure, the estimates being thrown out about the Oregon team's usage are well above those numbers, but that shouldn't be surprising, either. 

There are few places for a college to be located where smoking weed is more acceptable than it is in Eugene. 

Former Duck Reuben Droughns offers up another anecdote, via Alipour: "It's the weed capital of the world."

And Droughns' "weed capital of the world" exists because it is in a state that is a lot more marijuana-friendly than most. Oregon has consistently been one of the leading states in terms of passing decriminalization laws.

Given the widespread acceptance and access to the drug that players have at Oregon, it is no surprise they would check in with a higher percentage of use. 

I'm sure this report will be shocking to some, but that is only because they aren't paying attention.