Many Top College Players on Drugs, Paper Reports

Sixteen percent of the country’s top senior college football players had drugs in their system when tested by the National Football League a month ago in New Orleans, the Boston Globe reported Saturday.

The NFL invited the top 350 seniors to New Orleans the week after the Super Bowl for tryouts that were watched by scouts, general managers and coaches from all 28 teams, the newspaper said.

The players were drug-tested during the week, and the results, submitted to the NFL teams in the past few days, showed that 57 players had drugs in their systems.

“The results are simply staggering,” said one top player personnel official, who preferred to remain anonymous. “It just goes to show what (Commissioner) Pete Rozelle has said before is right on the money. We inherit this (drug) problem from the colleges. These kids are already into this stuff before we ever get to draft them.”

Reportedly, 54 players tested positive for marijuana and three for cocaine and other drugs.

“We had one of the top players coming into the draft test (positive) for marijuana, cocaine, morphine and barbiturates all in one shot,” another top personnel director said. “And yet when the guy worked out, he looked great. Everyone was impressed.”

Cocaine stays in a user’s system less than 72 hours, but marijuana can be traced for at least 60 days, according to medical experts.