Real Sports always has quality stories, but tonight’s show (HBO, 10 p.m. ET) is especially compelling. It begins with Andrea Kremer’s report on marijuana and the NFL. The piece documents how players use pot to deal with the pain of playing such a brutal sport.

Kremer’s report makes the case that the NFL is wrong for banning marijuana. She shows the players still use it anyway.

From the story:

ANDREA KREMER: Is it something that’s talked about in the locker room?

CHRIS KLUWE: It’s not like, you know, there’s  the smoker’s corner where everyone goes– (laugh) and talks about, you know, “Hey what strain did you smoke last night?” It’s more you know,  guys will be talking and be like, “You know, yeah I got– you know, I smoked a bit last night and, yeah, it—did help me feel better.”  You know in the locker room when guys talked about it, it wasn’t “I’m– I’m gonna go get blazed and tear up the town.”  It was like, “Yeah, I smoked a bit and then I went and passed out on the couch ’cause I felt like crap after practice.”

*********

While Kremer’s story surely will have Roger Goodell answering questions about marijuana at his press conference next week, Frank Deford’s piece on Boomer Esiason was both heartbreaking and inspiring. Their bound: having children with Cystic Fibrosis.

After watching a screener by myself, I insisted on my wife seeing it.

The show finishes up strong with Bernard Goldberg’s story on the unlikely new owner of the Sacramento Kings.