Falcons Management Discussed Team's Use of Painkillers in Released Emails

An email chain from 2010 featuring several high-ranking Atlanta Falcons officials, including team owner Arthur Blank, entered into court record last Thursday showed the organization's concern after it spent almost three times the NFL average on painkillers to treat players. 

Jim Litke of the Associated Press reported Tuesday documents revealed the Falcons spent $81,000 on medications for players during the 2009 season. Those involved in the email exchange were worried about the "potential embarrassment" if the numbers were released.

Falcons president Rich McKay, general manager Thomas Dimitroff and director of sports medicine and performance Marty Lauzon, who served as head athletic trainer in 2010, were all part of the chain and remain with the franchise.

On Monday, during Opening Night festivities for Super Bowl 51, Dimitroff was asked about the emails, but he wouldn't provide any additional information, according to the AP report.

"That's being litigated now. That's not something we're going discuss right now," he said. "When the time is right, we'll readdress that."

The timing of the news has taken away some of the attention from Atlanta's first Super Bowl appearance since the 1998 campaign. The Falcons are set to face off with the AFC champion New England Patriots on Sunday in Houston's NRG Stadium for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Details about the team's use of painkillers come as part of a proposed class-action lawsuit from more than 1,800 former players. The AP report noted there are "thousands of similar documents" surfacing as the players try to illustrate the NFL's dependency on medication without concern for their health after professional football.

One email from Lauzon to Dimitroff noted the organization "barely missed a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) investigation" in regard to the billing of the painkillers. A SportPharm investigation concluded the team was risking a "culture of dependency" due to its frequent use of the medications.

Atlanta isn't the only team involved in the leaguewide, hot-button issue, though. During an interview with E:60 last July (via ESPN.com), former Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who retired after the 2015 season, explained how easy it was to obtain whatever he wanted.            

"I guess my first half of my career before they really, you know, before they were like started looking over the whole industry, or the whole NFL, the doctors, the team doctors and trainers they were giving them out like candy, you know?" he said.

Johnson added: "If you were hurting, then you could get 'em, you know. It was nothing. I mean, if you needed Vicodin, call out, 'My ankle hurt,' you know. 'I need, I need it. I can't, I can't play without it,' or something like that.

"It was simple. That's how easy it was to get 'em, you know. So if you were dependent on 'em, they were readily available."

An investigation by Paul Solotaroff of Men's Journal concluded the NFL had become so "swamped by narcotics" that the league "could not survive without these powerful drugs."