The Biggest Stoners in Sports

The former tight end and star player for the Denver Broncos between 2003-2008, Jackson is an outspoken proponent of changing the NFL’s stance having a stash of grass. Most notably, the football ace penned a 2014 op-ed in the New York Times about his views, appropriately titling it “The NFL’s Absurd Marijuana Policy.” He’s also a member of the Gridiron Cannabis Coalition, a football weed advocacy group. 

With a nickname like Melo, the NBA great has to be a stoner… right? Back in 2004, the Thunder-turned Knick-turned Nuggets All-Star was trying to literally and metaphorically get high when he was carrying some grass at Denver International Airport before boarding a flight. For explanation, Anthony used the age-old excuse that it was his friend’s (“I had no idea that there was marijuana in my backpack,” he said in a statement), but the stoner stigma stuck after another one of Anthony’s friends was caught a mere two years later with pot after getting pulled over while Melo was driving. Throw in that time Anthony appeared in a video alongside a known Baltimore drug dealer, and you have yourself three pretty convincing pieces of evidence that Anthony and Mary Jane are at the very least on friendly terms.

Weed has been as much of a staple in NFLer Stepnoski’s life as footballs. The former Cowboy and Oiler offensive lineman has been one of the stuffy league’s most vocal proponents of marijuana, with the 90s-era player an active member of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, even serving as member of their Texas chapter. In fact, Stepnoski so believes in the cannabis cause that (as of 2016) he even emigrated to Canada to escape America’s stance on the green stuff. It was a decision that could have partly been spurred by the fact his alma mater (shout-out Erie, Pennsylvania’s Cathedral Preparatory School!) decided remove him from their (prestigious?) athletic hall of fame because of his weed ways. No word on what Stepnoski is doing these days, but it’s a safe bet he’s probably doing it high.

You gotta hand it to former NBA point guard Damon Stoudamire. The Raptor and Trail Blazer baller had a period when he found himself in hot water on more than one occasion thanks to his penchant for weed, from getting pulled over with some ganja to getting caught with Mary Jane while going through airport security. In all Stoudamire was was arrested three times for possession with a year, with the final incident spurring a three-month suspension, leading the former baller to attend a 90 day rehab clinic. The arrest was ultimately a turning point in his life. “I felt like I had to change,” he said. “I had to quit being selfish.”

Behold the legend of the Texas Tornado, Ricky Williams. An ace college football player and winner of the Heisman Trophy back in 1998, Williams turned to the sticky icky after getting diagnosed with clinical depression and social anxiety disorder. A former spokesman for Paxil, Williams turned his back on the drug and began toking up, going so far to say that “Marijuana is 10 times better for me than Paxil.” As a result, Williams was in and out of the league, failing not one, not two, but three drug tests– all in two year’s time and bouncing between the Saints, Dolphins, Ravens and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts. Since his retirement, Williams been an outspoken weed advocate, with the former player recently partnering in the opening of a ganja-friendly gym dubbed Power Plant Fitness in San Francisco. (Get it?)

If
there’s one athlete who not only tokes but looks the part of a stoner, it’s
star ballplayer Tim Linecum. Popped for possession in 2009, the Giants giant
with his flowing locks and laid back NorCal attitude could be a bona fide
baseball poster boy for dope, with Frisco fans coining the supportive term “Let
Timmy Smoke” in chants at AT&T Park as a result. Heck, Linecum itself even
alluded to his penchant for marijuana shortly immediately after scoring a World
Series ring in 2010. When asked by ESPN what he thought fans were doing to
celebrate the win, Linecum replied: “There’s a lot of craziness, I’m hoping. Beer flowing, smoke in the air.”

Basketball Hall of Famer Adbul-Jabbar tried to bring herb from Toronto back the U.S. in 1998, but he got caught. Police also arrested him on the suspicion he was under the influence of marijuana. Though pot didn’t just score the athlete trouble. At least Tommy Chong attributes schwag for keeping Adbul-Jabbar “playing eight years past his prime.”

Long before he ruled both Hollywood as a moviestar and California as governor, Ah-nuld famously took the world of bodybuilding by storm, winning Mr. Olympia seven times. But in between his reps on the weight bench, Schwarzenegger partook in the green stuff, with the Terminator even seen smoking a joint in his classic documentary Pumping Iron. To his credit, Arnold didn’t forget his roots while governor of California with the state one of the first to loosen its weed laws under his leadership. 

While perhaps not the most well-known name among the Schwarzeneggers and Linecums of the sports stoner world, Newton very deservedly claims a spot on any list of sports stoners. Back in 2001, the former Dallas Cowboy (then two years into retirement) was pulled over and found hauling an epic 213 lbs of the green stuff. If you thought Newton learned to never take big risk after that again, well, you’d be mistaken. A little over a month later, Newton was pulled over again, this time with 175 pounds of weed. After shipping off to prison for 30 months, Newton renounced his hazy marijuana days, saying “I got on my knees and said, ‘God, I want to make a deal. …You protect me in here, and when I come out, I’ll do everything I can to make it right.'”

Way before it was trendy or uh, legal, former Red Sox slugger Bill Lee (the Spaceman!) blasted more than home runs. Famously known to add weed as a pancake topping (it has a little more punch than Aunt Jemima), Lee’s stoner ways were so prolific fans would throw him tinfoils of weed at him during his time in Canada with the Expos. (in an understatement of the century, Lee says of the gesture: “It was nice.”) The cover star of an issue of High Times Magazine in 1980, Lee has continued to be an advocate for the sticky icky, even basing his 2016 run for governor of Vermont around legalizing weed.

Career Highlights: Texas Rangers manager who played 10 seasons in the major leagues himself.

Stoner Highlight: Washington tested positive for cocaine earlier this year — saying he?d tried it only once, naturally. He also 'fessed up to prior drug use, including pot and amphetamines, back when he was a player in the 1980s.

What He Said: "I made mistakes in my younger days. I want to get past it, move forward and get back on the field and start winning some ballgames."

Further Evidence: Had only 146 RBIs in a career that stretched nearly a decade.

By Josh Dean

Stoner siblings and UFC stars Nick and Nate Diaz are unabashed fandom of the green stuff. With Nate, the dude went so far to call himself the “Number One athletic stoner – besides Michael Phelps” and has no qualms lighting up his vape in front of the spotlight of TV cameras. Meanwhile, brother Nick has become the ultimate marijuana martyr after years of bong-inspired braggadocio. (The guy even once told the Los Angeles Times: “I can pass a drug test in eight days with herbal cleansers. I drink 10 lbs of water and sweat out 10 lbs of water every day. I’ll be fine.”) Unfortunately, Diaz was not fine. In 2015, the the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended him for five years after failing a drug test in spectacular fashion. While it was later reduced, Diaz hasn’t been in a ring professionally since.

In the face of Nick Diaz’s toking troubles, fellow UFC star Ronda Rousey came out swinging in support of her fellow fighter in a fiery rant where the athlete staked her claim as a pot proponent who isn’t afraid to say how she feels. “I’m against testing for weed at all,” she explained. “It’s not a performance enhancing drug. And it has nothing to do with competition. It’s only tested for political reasons.” You tell em, Ronda!