Chris Long retired this past weekend, deciding to hang it up after 11 NFL seasons in which he won a pair of Super Bowls with the corrupt and slimy New England Patriots and “America’s Team,” your Philadelphia Eagles.

Long appeared today on the Dan Patrick show and revealed something else about his career, something I think we already knew. He’s a marijuana smoker who enjoyed the ganja over the years.

Said the 34 year old:

“I certainly enjoyed my fair share on a regular basis throughout my career. I was never afraid to say that, but I’m able to say it more explicitly now. Listen, if not for that, I’m not as capable of coping with the stressors of day-to-day NFL life. A lot of guys get a lot of pain management out of it.”

Weed entered the NFL news cycle this week when it was announced that the league would study the Swedish cheebah as part of a new “Joint Pain Management Committee,” one of two new initiatives to help with player health and wellness.

Long, who is a noted progressive and has spoken very bluntly and very plainly about a multitude of contemporary political and social issues, is firmly on the side of allowing NFL players to smoke the herb, after the jump:

“We should be headed to a place where we allow players to enjoy what I would not even call a drug. It’s far less dangerous than guzzling a fifth of alcohol and going out after a game. Chances are the player won’t even make it to the club to do this sort of thing we that all kind of wag our finger at when we hear about a guy getting into a fight or a DUI. You’re never gonna read about him sitting on a couch and binge-watching ‘Game of Thrones’ again. So I think from a standpoint of what’s safer for people and the player, certainly people in the spotlight, it is far less harmful than alcohol. It is far less harmful than tobacco. At various points in league history they have engaged in partnerships at different levels with those respective industries.”

Gotta agree with Chris Long here. A little bit of the cannabis is whatever. Better than getting blitzed on Jack Daniels and heading out to the highway.