One of the key arguments surrounding the NFL in 2016 is how to manage pain properly. The NFL was sued by players over illegal painkiller usage, but the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge. One of the primary faces of the lawsuit, former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, hasn't been shy about taking the battle into the media.

McMahon is particularly focused on making marijuana a non-banned substance for NFL players -- he's previously stated Mike Ditka knew Bears players were smoking weed back in the 80's. In a recent interview with Maggie Gray of Sports Illustrated, McMahon reiterated his stance, calling the NFL's logic for not allowing marijuana "B.S." and claiming the league is "in cahoots with Big Pharma."

"That's B.S. They want you taking those pills. I think they're in cahoots with Big Pharma. My whole career they were pushing pills on you," McMahon said. "For whatever ailment you have, they have a pill for you. And that's the reason they're demonizing this plant the way they are, because you wouldn't have these problems with these guys with all their head injuries and these kind of things, the joints. This stuff's so much better for you. There's no side effects. It doesn't kill anybody. There's no documented cases of people dying.

"There's hundreds of thousands of people dying every year from these pills. All they do is take them off the market. Pharma doesn't get a slap on the wrist, nothing, for killing all these people."

McMahon's previously spoken about how he contemplated suicide, pinning his issues with early-onset dementia on painkiller usage. He says now the difference-maker in him not taking his own life was marijuana.

"When you're taking all these pain pills, I couldn't sleep when I took them. I'd eat probably eight to 10 of Percocet a day and I couldn't sleep," McMahon said. "The only thing to help me sleep was marijuana. I've been using it for a long time."

Jim McMahon says he uses marijuana to cope with chronic pain. USATSI

Marijuana's been a big point of emphasis around the NFL recently. CBS Sports Jason La Canfora wrote a compelling column about the NFL's need to get out of the pot-policing business.

Stars like Le'Veon Bell of the Steelers are facing multiple-game suspensions for skipping drug tests, former players like Jake Plummer are stunned the league won't change its stance, and young players like Eugene Monroe are retiring from the game amid adamantly stating the NFL should change its stance on marijuana.

Marijuana is legal in multiple states (Colorado and Washington have NFL teams) and medicinal marijuana is available in many other states. There's a compelling argument for the usage of marijuana as a pain-management device.

But it's also illegal in many other states (hello, Bible Belt!), which causes a bit of a conflict when it comes to management of a league across the entire country. The conservative nature of the NFL and the complexities of having 32 teams spread out across states with very different laws is a much more likely reason for the NFL not allowing medicinal marijuana than is the idea of the league being in the pocket of BIG PHARMA.