Ricky Williams and Calvin Johnson mock Roger Goodell in Jeeter/National Lampoon Super Bowl-adjacent cannabis short
February 9, 2025
The last several years have seen significantly increased legalization of a variety of recreational cannabis products across many states. And even the National Football League, once so strongly against marijuana, no longer suspends players for THC usage, and significantly increased the THC threshold necessary for a positive test (which now only draws a fine) this December.
But the NFL’s stance on cannabis and marijuana (marijuana refers to the parts of the cannabis flower containing THC) still stands out as more harsh than that of many states where it operates. That’s been shown off in many ways, including by the THC seltzer offerings at many NFL-adjacent parties in New Orleans this week. And the league, and commissioner Roger Goodell, took a little ribbing in a new 7-minute short from pre-rolled cannabis firm Jeeter and comedy company National Lampoon that was released on Super Bowl Sunday.
The idea of the National Lampoon Presents The Jeeter Potluck short is of a husband and wife hosting a Super Bowl party with a variety of unusual behavior. But the particularly NFL-relevant aspect here comes around 4:06 when former NFL players Ricky Williams (particularly known for his enjoyment of marijuana, and for his 2006 exile from the league to the CFL over positive drug tests) and Calvin Johnson show up:
The NFL players are carrying boxes of Jeeter’s pre-rolled cannabis products to this “pot luck,” and those are enthusiastically received. But the most notable part of this comes around 5:27, when the wife in the short asks “Isn’t Ricky supposed to stay off the grass?” The husband responds “No, that’s down the street, at the Goodells’ house,” leading to the image shown at the top of this post. The wife asks “Are you sure?” and the husband answers “We love grass here.”
The overall campaign here goes beyond just this short. This is “the first of many content pieces between Jeeter and National Lampoon” (with the latter brand well known for their decades of comedy in films, TV shows, and other media), and this is alongside Jeeter (“the No. 1 pre-roll brand in the United States”) launching “Big Game Legacy Packs” in dispensaries in the four states their products are currently sold in (California, Michigan, Arizona, and Massachusetts). And they also released a limited-edition apparel line with Johnson and Williams, with that obviously being available more widely than the actual cannabis packs here.
But the particularly notable part here is seeing Johnson (especially) and Williams involved in trolling Goodell in a cannabis promo video released on Super Bowl Sunday. Yes, this isn’t an ad on the national broadcast (where marijuana ads have reportedly been rejected in the past), or even a local one, but it’s a high-budget effort involving two very famous NFL stars (and while it’s expected to see Williams using his stature in something taking a shot at the NFL and marijuana, it’s a little more unusual to see that from Johnson). And yes, Goodell and the NFL will be just fine despite this. But this is an interesting way to maybe get the discussions around the NFL and cannabis (which has been praised by many former athletes, including ex-NFLers and sometimes even active ones, for its value in pain relief) closer to what we’re seeing in other sports, where even some once-strident voices against marijuana have been changing their tune.
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