NFL

Cromartie: NFL should allow weed

Antonio Cromartie sounds like he wishes he played in Denver or Seattle … and not because those cities were just represented in the Super Bowl.

The Jets cornerback said in an interview he believes the NFL should give up on testing players for marijuana.

“They need to just let it go,” Cromartie told thisis50.com — a website affiliated with the rapper 50 Cent. “We’re just going to do it anyway. They just need to let it go. They need to go ahead and say, ‘Ya’ll go ahead, smoke it, do what you need to do.’ ”

Cromartie later took to Twitter claiming he said “players” and not “we’re,” but it sure sounds like “we’re.” Cromartie began laughing when he gave his answer, making it difficult to be certain what he said.

“The interview that I did on the weed policy, I never said We’re I said tht [sic] Players will smoke anyway. I don’t smoke so I don’t care about it,” Cromartie tweeted.

He later added: “And for my followers I don’t smoke and I haven’t smoked anything in my life. I never seen the need too [sic].”

The topic of marijuana use in the NFL became a topic during Super Bowl week because the drug was recently legalized in Colorado and Washington, home of the two Super Bowl teams — the Broncos and Seahawks.

Sehawks coach Pete Carroll said last week the league should investigate whether marijuana has a medical use for the league’s players.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did not sound as if he were giving any thought to lifting the league’s ban on marijuana when asked about it last week at his pre-Super Bowl press conference.

“It is still an illegal substance on a national basis,” Goodell said. “It’s something that is part of the collective bargaining agreement with the players. It is questionable as to the positive impacts, in the face of the very strong evidence of the negative effects, including addictions and other issues.

“We’ll continue to follow the medicine. Our experts right now are not indicating that we should change our policy in any way. We are not actively considering that at this point in time. But if it goes down the road sometime, that’s something that we would never take off the table.”

Cromartie does not need any negative press right now. He turns 30 in April, and is expected to be released by the Jets in the coming weeks in a move to create salary cap space. He could, however, be brought back on a cheaper salary. He is scheduled to carry a salary-cap figure of $14.9 million and is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career. Cromartie dealt with a hip injury all season. He said last week the injury did not require surgery and he vowed to regain the form he showed in 2012 when he was one of the best cornerbacks in football.