As noted by Ben Wednesday afternoon, the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine dives headfirst into the “pot lifestyle” of student-athletes in general and, for the purposes of this post, Oregon specifically.
In the piece, current and former Ducks estimated that anywhere between 40 and 60 percent of the players in the football program smoked weed. During the course of one interview for the article, in fact, a current Duck actually demonstrated for the writer his innate inhaling abilities.
In response to the report, particularly the numbers bandied about in it, head coach Chip Kelly dismissed the percentages put on the off-field use of marijuana in his program by pointing to the on-field success the Ducks have enjoyed of late.
“If we had 60 percent of our kids doing that, we wouldn’t be 34-6 [the past three years] and play in three straight BCS games,” Kelly told reporters after practice this morning, while also lamenting the fact that random testing of players is not allowed under state law.
Experts have been brought in to educate his players on the dangers of drug use/abuse, a problem Kelly rightly noted is one that’s not specific to his program.
“I think it’s a [problem] on every campus right now,” Kelly said. “Our responsibility as coaches is to educate our guys on what the dangers are, and that’s what we continue to do... You’re coaching 18- to 22-year-old kids. They’re in the mistake-making phase of their lives. I think no one goes through life without making a mistake, but I think the biggest thing is to learn from the mistake.
“It’s not just ‘don’t do it because if you get caught, here are the ramifications.’ But ‘you shouldn’t be doing it because of, really, the effects that it has on you.’”
As for the current player who smoked weed in front of the reporter? Kelly does not know his identity, although he’d love to be on the receiving end of that information.
“We can’t [discipline that player], because you guys never give up your source,” Kelly said. “I’d love to find out who it is, so if you guys can get me it, give me the name. We’ll test him.”