If you were wondering how many NFL players are smoking marijuana, two-time Super Bowl Champion Travis Kelce has an answer for you.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end estimated that anywhere from 50-80 percent of NFL players use marijuana, he told Vanity Fair.

As marijuana usage has become legal or decriminalized in an increasing number of states, the league amended its drug testing policy in 2021 to refrain from testing players for THC during the offseason. 

That has made it easier for players to continue to smoke pot, Kelce said.

“If you just stop in the middle of July, you’re fine,” Kelce said in the article. “A lot of guys stop a week before and they still pass because everybody’s working out in the heat and sweating their tail off.

“Nobody’s really getting hit for it anymore.” 

In May, free agent running back Le’Veon Bell told the “Steel Here” podcast that he smoked marijuana before NFL games. 

“Looking back on this, that’s what I did,” Bell said, according to ESPN. “When I was playing football, I smoked, bro. Even before the games, I’d smoke and I’d go out there and run for 150, two [touchdowns].”

While marijuana is still illegal under federal law, 23 states have legalized recreational use of the drug.

It’s a dramatic shift from when Kelce was suspended in college for the entire 2010 season at the University of Cincinnati after he tested positive for marijuana. 

He told Vanity Fair that he was “so embarrassed” and “didn’t want to look at anybody” at the time of the suspension. 

Kelce ended up staying with his brother Jason during the season he was suspended. 

His suspension even confused his father Ed. 

“I told him it’s a great learning opportunity. Live with it. Grow from it. Learn from it. It is what it is, and you just have to deal with it now,” Ed Kelce told the outlet.

“All the while, I’m biting my tongue about how stupid it is that they’re going to suspend a college kid for smoking pot. Give me a fucking break.”

After the suspension, Kelce returned to the Bearcats in 2011 and has since become one of the preeminent tight ends in football, winning two Super Bowls with the Chiefs.