The pain was so bad, Cullen Jenkins got to the point where he had to rely on two Vicodin just to get through an NFL game.
The former Green Bay Packers defensive lineman started to feel the aches and strains of football during his final season at Central Michigan, even before his rookie debut in the NFL in 2003. But by the end of his 13-year professional career, pain was a constant companion, from his torn pectoral that had to be drained of excess fluid to his injured ankle and battered quadriceps.
When the 37-year-old retired in 2016 after playing with the Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and Washington Redskins, he was regularly using opiates to dull the pain and drinking alcohol to numb the senses. Sleep was elusive.
Jenkins, who came back from a calf injury to help push the Packers to a Super Bowl XLV victory, fell into a deep depression, living with the side effects and hangovers of strong painkillers and alcohol.
“I’m not trying to say a sympathy story,” Jenkins said. “Or say it was terrible. When you play football, you know the risk that comes with it. If I could do it again? I would do it again.
“For me, it’s finding ways to deal with it post-career. With football they have all the programs for continuing education, job things. But if you’re in a lot of pain, you’re kind of just cut off.”
So Jenkins has recently turned to a controversial supplement instead: Cannabidiol, better known as CBD oil.
The chemical, extracted from a cannibals sativa plant, is known to have numerous benefits in the form of managing chronic pain, promoting sleep and thereby reducing depression and anxiety.
Jenkins, who now lives in New Jersey, is in Los Angeles this week promoting the CBD oil company he is working with, Fresh Farms CBD, of which he also has become an investor. He talked about his new method of treating his pain in a phone interview with the Journal Sentinel on Thursday.
Playing for the Giants
Jenkins was playing for the New York Giants (2013-’15) when he relied on Vicodin regularly. He would take a full pill right before pregame, then he would take a half of a pill right before kickoff and the other half at halftime. He was a warrior and it took a lot to pull him off the field.
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