Seantrel Henderson suspended 10 games using perscription marijuana to treat Crohn’s

Update: Henderson was suspended 10 games by the NFL, the Bills announced on Nov. 29. This suspension comes on top of the four-game ban he served at the beginning of the season.

Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson had a rough offseason after he was diagnosed with Crohn’s near the end of the last season and he now faces a four-game suspension for reportedly using marijuana to treat the disease.

Henderson, 24, is appealing the suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, but may not have been ready to play in Week 1 anyway. He’s listed at 6’7, 331 pounds, but the offensive lineman lost a significant amount of weight due to Crohn’s.

The challenge for Henderson, who fully participated in a Bills practice on Tuesday for the first time since the diagnosis, has been gaining the weight back that he lost without eating foods that make him sick.

“I think it’s just sticking with the things that the nutritionist tells me to eat, and as long as I do that and stay away from the stuff I know I’m supposed to stay away from, I think I’ll be fine,” Henderson told Vic Carucci of The Buffalo News in August. “It’s not a big change.”

Medicinal marijuana is a common treatment for the inflammation that comes with Crohn’s as an alternative to corticosteroids. The tricky nature of Henderson’s appeal is that he used a banned substance to treat a challenge that other players don’t have to face, and he did it with an alternative to steroids.

“I think we have some excellent programs and guys have to be accountable,” Bills coach Rex Ryan told reporters on Wednesday when asked about the suspension. “If it’s against the rules, it’s against the rules.”

Former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard and New England Patriots offensive lineman Matt Light both played at a high level in the NFL following Crohn’s diagnoses. Neither were ever suspended during their NFL careers.

Henderson’s not a stranger to marijuana-related punishments. He was suspended three times during his college career with the Miami Hurricanes and admitted to teams at the 2014 Senior Bowl that marijuana was at the root of each punishment.

The Bills selected Henderson in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft, but he started all 16 games at right tackle as a rookie and 10 games in 2016 before he was diagnosed with Crohn’s.