NFL Rules: Ricky Williams Can Use Painkillers, Not Pot

In an interview with ESPN Radio, Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, currently serving an indefinite NFL suspension for violations of the league's drug policy, said he has stopped smoking marijuana and has passed his drug tests as he attempts to get reinstated into the league.

But it's fascinating that when he was asked why he used marijuana in the past, Williams cited "having to play through the physical pain.''

As everyone who follows football knows, players are expected to play through pain, and team doctors frequently prescribe painkillers and give players pain-killing injections to help them get through games. So it's OK for a team employee to give one drug to a player so he can play through pain, but if a player uses another drug to help him deal with pain, he's banned from the league.

Williams also cited stress as a reason he has smoked marijuana, and he said yoga -- ''the spiritual practice part of it'' -- has given him "a way to relax without having to use anything.'' But I have a feeling that if he gets back to the NFL, the constant pounding the football season takes on his body will tempt him to turn to drugs again. If he wants to stay in the league, they had better be the drugs he gets from the team doctor.