Aaron Rodgers’s Psychedelic Drug Admission Will Put NFL Broadcasters in a Tough Spot.
1. Let me be clear right out of the gate here: I don’t care whether Aaron Rodgers does legal drugs, illegal drugs or anything in between. It has no bearing on my life.
Having said that, I found Rodgers’s admission on a podcast this week that ayahuasca has changed his life on and off the field fascinating for one reason: How will this play out on NFL telecasts this season?
According to the Packers quarterback, psychedelic drugs paved the way for him to have the “best season of my career.” He also said he didn’t think it was a coincidence that he won back-to-back MVP awards after experimenting with the psychoactive brew.
So, with Rodgers now making this a story, what are the networks that air NFL games supposed to do during Packers games?
Do you think Roger Goodell wants Mike Tirico discussing ayahuasca in front of 20 million viewers in Week 2 when the Packers play the Bears on Sunday Night Football?
If Rodgers is balling out in Week 1 against the Vikings, should we expect a sideline report from Fox’s Erin Andrews about Rodgers’s drug use that week?
Do you think the NFL wants Jim Nantz to explain what DMT is in Week 4 when CBS airs Packers-Patriots? (Although that would be amazing.)
Do you think ESPN wants Joe Buck breaking down psychedelic drugs during Monday Night Football in Week 15, when the Packers play the Rams? (Although that would be amazing, too.)
Aaron Rodgers is one of the top three or four quarterbacks in the NFL. He’s crediting a psychedelic drug with helping him win MVP awards and play the best ball of his career. Can NFL telecasts just completely ignore this story? The networks will take their cue from the league office, so they probably will, but what if Rodgers cites ayahuasca during his production meetings with the crews for each network? Are the broadcasters just supposed to ignore that and not mention it during game telecasts?
The reality is that Rodgers has made this a football story by saying ayahuasca helped him improve his performance on the field. And he clearly has strong feelings about the benefits of psychedelic drugs. Whatever your personal feelings are, though, about the drug, it IS illegal under federal law in the United States.
That puts the NFL and its broadcast partners in quite a pickle this season.
But at this point, all we can do is just hope we get an ayahuasca breakdown from Al Michaels in Week 11 when the Packers play on Amazon Prime.
“Do you believe in hallucinations? YES! Aaron Rodgers does!”
2. This week’s SI Media Podcast, which came out early today, is a milestone episode. It is episode No. 400. In the opening segment, I discuss the history of the podcast, reminisce about taking over as host from Richard Deitsch and give out well-deserved thanks to a few people. I also read the latest Apple reviews with Sal Licata, from WFAN and SNY in New York, who joins me each week on the podcast.
Aaron Rodgers Opens Up About Use of Psychedelics, Mental Health
Aaron Rodgers opened up about his journey to self-love and how ayahuasca, a psychoactive tea containing the hallucinogenic drug DMT, helped him reach the point he’s at now.
The tea has been used for thousands of years for traditional healing purposes in Central and South America.
The Packers quarterback joined Aubrey Marcus, the founder of supplement company Onnit, on his podcast this week to discuss what this mental health journey has been like for him.
“To me, one of the core tenets of your mental health is that self-love,” Rodgers said. “That’s what ayahuasca did for me, was help me see how to unconditionally love myself. It’s only in that unconditional self love, that then I’m able to truly be able to unconditionally love others. And what better way to work on my mental health than to have an experience like that?”
The four-time NFL MVP went on to explain that he wanted to better his self-love so that he could give “unconditional love” to his teammates. This, in turn, would help better the relationships on the team.
“The greatest gift I can give my teammates, in my opinion, is to be able to show up and to be someone who can model unconditional love to them,” Rodgers said. “I mean obviously it’s important I play well, and show up and lead and all that stuff. They won’t care about what you say until they know how much you care.”
Ever since the 38-year-old admitted he was unvaccinated for COVID-19 back in November, Rodgers has been open about using more natural remedies for illness and now for mental health purposes. Back in February, for example, the quarterback revealed that went through Panchakarma, a 12-day cleansing and healing method.
Ayahuasca
This article is about the psychoactive brew for the vine see.
Banisteriopsis caapi. for other uses, see Ayahuasca (disambiguation).
Ayahuasca is a South American psychoactive and entheogenic brewed drink traditionally used both socially and as ceremonial spiritual medicine among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin, and more recently in Western society. [2][3][4] The tea causes altered states of consciousness, including visual hallucinations and altered perceptions of reality.
Ayahuasca [1] is commonly made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, the Psychotria viridis shrub or a substitute, and other ingredients including Justicia pectoralis,[5] one of the Brugmansia (especially Brugmansia insignis and Brugmansia versicolor, or a hybrid breed) or Datura species,[6] and mapacho (Nicotiana rustica).[7] [8]
A chemically similar preparation, sometimes called “pharmahuasca”, can be prepared using N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and a pharmaceutical monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), such as moclobemide or isocarboxazid.[9]
Internationally, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances lists the active ingredient DMT as a schedule 1 drug, but does not control the cultivation of plants from which it can be derived. This is similar to peyote plants and mescaline, and psilocybe mushrooms and psilocybin.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
