Ravens cut Eugene Monroe, medical marijuana advocate who tweeted about team’s lack of support

Eugene Monroe is on mission. He’s going to keep advocating for the use of medical marijuana instead of opioids for pain management in the NFL, even though that may (or may not) have cost him his job with the Baltimore Ravens.

"Whatever happens in terms of my professional football career, I will never stop pushing for the League to accept medical cannabis as a viable option for pain management," Monroe tweeted Thursday, a day after being released by the Ravens.

Monroe is believed to be the only active player to campaign for the removal of marijuana from the NFL’s banned substance list. It’s a cause that’s been keeping him pretty busy lately.

The veteran offensive tackle recently donated $80,000 for research on the topic at Johns Hopkins. He penned an essay on the matter on the Players’ Tribune, spoke about it on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and constantly tweets about the subject.

Some of those tweets last week concerned the Ravens and their lack of support for his cause.

Days later, Monroe was no longer a member of the Ravens.

Obviously, there could have been a number of reasons for his release. An article on the Ravens website mentioned several, including his team-high base salary of $6.5 million, his $8.7-million cap hit and the multiple injuries that led him to miss 15 games over the last two seasons.

But the article also mentioned how the team felt about Monroe’s advocacy for medical marijuana and included this quote from Coach Jim Harbaugh earlier in the off-season: “I promise you, he does not speak for the organization.”

Whether or not his cause had anything to do with the Ravens’ decision, Monroe promised Thursday that he will not give up the fight.

"I will do everything I can to ensure the generations of NFL players after me won't have to resort to harmful and addictive opioids as their only option for pain management," he tweeted.