Mike Freeman's 10-Point Stance: Does the NFL Have a Dipping Problem?By Mike Freeman Oct 28, 2015
The NFL's "silent plague"During the Vikings' telecast on Sunday, it was reported that running back Adrian Peterson was ill from swallowing his chewing tobacco. Peterson denied the story and said what really made him ill was some whack seafood. "I've been dipping for the past 10 years," Peterson told the media after the game. "Swallowing dip? My body's immune to it. That doesn't affect me at all."Wait...hold on...what? Adrian Peterson has been using dip for a decade? This got me wondering: How much is dip used in the NFL?The answer: a helluva lot. A whole helluva lot.It turns out dip isn't just a baseball thing. It's also a football thing. As baseball has moved away from dip—slowly—football players might now use it as much, if not more, than their baseball counterparts.I asked four active players and one recently retired one what percentage of NFL players dip. The lowest estimate was 40 percent. The highest was 60 percent. (In MLB, the numbers seem to be trending much lower than that.)The players I spoke to describe an NFL awash in dip. Almost the entire offensive line on nearly every team uses dip, the players said. Many running backs. Most of the defensive line and a number of linebackers.Equipment managers on teams often make dip runs for players. They bring back bags full of dip and hand it out to players.One player, who is white, said dip use differs across racial lines and positions. "It's mostly racial," said the player. "White guys dip, only some of the black guys. It's also by position: OL, DL, LB, FB biggest dippers."What has also mostly gone unnoticed is that players dip while on the sideline all the time. Television cameras either don't see it or choose not to show it, but I'm told dipping happens often during games. I have to say, in 25 years of covering the sport, I have never heard of dip being this prevalent. I'm not saying it's a big deal, but interestingly the NFL, when it comes to dip, is going in a different direction than baseball. Baseball is trying to eliminate dip use due to cancer concerns.One NFL coach I spoke to called it "the silent plague.""I don't think guys using it understand the dangers it presents," the coach explained.That seems slightly dramatic, but then again, there's a reason why Major League Baseball has tried to ban chewing tobacco altogether. The head of baseball's players' union, Tony Clark, told the Associated Press (via USA Today) that some players quit chewing after Hall of Fame player Tony Gwynn died from oral cancer last year.Before his death, Gwynn told the San Diego Union-Tribune's Bill Center he believed his years of using dip led to him getting cancer. The Mayo Clinic says chewing tobacco can increase certain cancer risks including "esophageal cancer and various types of oral cancer, including cancers of your mouth, throat, cheek, gums, lips and tongue. You also face an increased risk of pancreatic cancer."Mayo also says dip is highly addictive—as addictive as cigarettes.The interesting part of this, from the NFL side, is that players I spoke to said the union and NFL have done little to curb use of chew. "They don't care," said one player on the use of chew.One factor that might explain some of that: A player explained to me that a higher percentage of coaches chew than players. Why do coaches use? "Probably to help them stay awake," the player said, referring to the long hours the coaches keep.The NFL is at an interesting crossroads now when it comes to dip. I asked the league for comment on the apparent prevalence of dipping, and in response received a statement explaining that it is against league policy to appear in ads for tobacco products or to use any tobacco product "in the playing field area or while being interviewed on television," which would seem to mean the sideline dipping is against the rules.Beyond that, it appears the league has no interest in curbing the use of something that potentially increases cancer risk.We'll see how long that lasts.link
