ANDRZEJ KRAUZEThe Super Bowl. Since the first kickoff in 1967, this event has become a consummate American ritual. Last year more than 108 million people tuned in. For at least a decade and a half, my family has attended the same neighborhood party: 15 lbs of kielbasa express-shipped from Buffalo, jambalaya, tubs of beer, congenial betting, ad rating via vocal voting. Everyone eats and emotes as the game unfolds on an enormous TV screen, where the players often seem larger than life.
The audible crunch of contact and the not-so-infrequent scenes of gigantic men writhing on the field in agony are poignant reminders that NFL football players suffer a lot of pain during their relatively short gridiron careers. To keep playing as long as possible, they down incredible amounts of painkillers, and many continue to take these medications long after retirement, not just because they are still suffering from football-acquired injuries, but because they are addicted, according to a 2010 study commissioned by ESPN and led by epidemiologist Linda Cottler while at Washington University in Saint Louis.
Unfortunately, NFL players are only a fraction of a very real and widespread problem: addiction to painkillers. In a feature article, “Pain and Progress,” Kerry Grens explains how opioid drugs ...
