{"id":298906,"date":"2025-11-22T04:19:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T04:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298906\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T04:19:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T04:19:15","slug":"players-continue-to-use-smelling-salts-despite-nfl-rule-its-a-meathead-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298906\/","title":{"rendered":"Players continue to use smelling salts despite NFL rule: “It’s a meathead thing”"},"content":{"rendered":"

During training camp, the NFL sent a memo to teams prohibiting them from providing smelling salts to players, citing a player-safety issue. The league, though, couldn\u2019t ban ammonia packets<\/a> without approval from the NFLPA.<\/p>\n

Thus, players, including 49ers tight end George Kittle, are still allowed to use smelling salts as long as they provide their own supply.<\/p>\n

Kittle, who jokingly said he \u201cconsidered retirement\u201d after hearing of the ban, uses smelling salts before every offensive possession. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that at least half of his teammates \u201cuse them most of the time<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kittle supplied his teammates with the inhalants during the preseason but kept running out of them. So, he vowed to empty an \u201cold-school\u201d bucket of cheese balls and fill it with smelling salts for the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the preseason games, I was the only one who was taking initiative, and the D-line completely wiped me out<\/a> in back-to-back games,\u201d Kittle told Eric Branch of the Chronicle.<\/p>\n

49ers guard Nick Zakelj has used ammonia packets since high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a meathead thing: Like, let me get juiced up before I go out there,\u201d Zakelj told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

The NFL\u2019s policy came after an FDA warning about the safety or efficacy of ammonia inhalants. According to the Chronicle\u2019s reporting, the NFL Head, Neck, and Spine Committee\u2019s recommendation followed Bills quarterback Josh Allen receiving an ammonia packet from a team employee as he emerged from the sideline medical tent after being cleared of a concussion against the Texans last season.<\/p>\n

The ban, though, has not deterred players from using inhalants.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t overthink it too much, but I\u2019m also not too worried about them not providing it either,\u201d 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. \u201cI feel like George will find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has, and he will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During training camp, the NFL sent a memo to teams prohibiting them from providing smelling salts to players,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-298906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}