Only on AP: Falcons worried about handling of painkillers
A string of emails that began in 2010 with the Atlanta Falcons head trainer and reached all the way to owner Arthur Blank showed a franchise worried about its “excessive” reliance on painkillers to treat players and the potential embarrassment that could cause the team and the NFL.
One topic raised in the email chain concerned the review by an outside agency that found the team spent $81,000 on prescriptions for medications for players in 2009 — nearly three times the league average.
Nearly every recipient on the email chain — from Blank, president Rich McKay and general manager Thomas Dimitroff to then-head athletic trainer Marty Lauzon — is still with the team, which plays New England in the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“That’s being litigated now. That’s not something we’re going discuss right now,” Dimitroff said Monday night when asked about the emails. “When the time is right, we’ll readdress that.”