Former Denver Broncos linebacker Randy Gregory just scored an early win in his legal battle over medical THC. A federal judge has shipped his disability-discrimination lawsuit out of federal court and back to Colorado state court, finding that the case turns on state anti-discrimination law, not the NFL’s collective-bargaining agreement.
In a June 26 order, U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews granted Gregory’s request to remand the lawsuit, rejecting the NFL and Broncos’ push to keep the fight in federal court. Gregory claims league and team officials refused to reasonably accommodate his prescribed use of dronabinol to treat social anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and chronic pain, according to the court order posted on Justia.
Judge Crews wrote that the “rights at issue” come from the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, not from the NFL’s labor contract. His order sends the case, Gregory v. National Football League et al., back to Arapahoe County District Court and leaves the league’s pending motion to dismiss on the cutting-room floor as moot.
How Gregory Says He Was Treated
Gregory, who suited up for the Broncos in the 2022–23 seasons, says a doctor prescribed dronabinol in February 2023 after diagnoses of social anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. His request for a Therapeutic Use Exception was denied in May 2023, according to The Denver Gazette.
After he exhausted the NFL’s internal and administrative processes, Gregory filed suit in Arapahoe County, alleging the league and the Broncos failed to accommodate a legally prescribed medication. His lawyers told the court that the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, or CADA, creates a “non-negotiable” state-law right to reasonable accommodations that cannot be bargained away in a labor deal.
Defendants Argued The CBA Controls
The NFL and Broncos quickly dragged the case into federal court, arguing that any judge who tried to resolve Gregory’s claims would have to dig into the collective-bargaining agreement and the league’s substance-abuse policies. That argument leans on Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over disputes in industries affecting commerce when claims are substantially dependent on a CBA, as explained by Cornell Law.
To back that up, the defendants filed portions of the CBA and the league’s drug-policy materials, which Judge Crews reviewed as part of his order.
Why The Judge Sent It Back
Crews ultimately was not convinced. In his written decision, available on Justia, he concluded that Gregory’s right to a reasonable accommodation is created by Colorado law, not by the NFL’s contract, and that the defendants had not met their burden to show federal preemption.
The judge stressed that simply mentioning or referencing a CBA in a complaint does not automatically transform state-law claims into federal labor disputes or make them “inextricably intertwined” with a contract. Any threshold questions about whether Gregory properly exhausted remedies under CADA, he said, are for the state court to sort out.
What’s Next
With the federal court stepping aside, the case now heads back to Arapahoe County District Court, where the NFL and Broncos can raise defenses such as failure to exhaust remedies, according to The Denver Gazette.
The timing from here is wide open. The federal order simply directs the clerk to remand the matter, leaving it to the state judge to set deadlines for discovery, motions and anything resembling a trial schedule. However it unfolds, the case is poised to test how Colorado courts balance CADA’s accommodation requirements against the NFL’s drug and discipline regime.
About Dronabinol
Dronabinol is a synthetic version of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive component of cannabis. Certain formulations are approved for medical use in the United States, according to prescribing information on DailyMed.
The medication is a controlled substance and is distinct from recreational cannabis in its standardized formulation and specific, FDA-approved indications.
Why It Matters
Legal analysts say this ruling could become a bellwether for how far state anti-discrimination laws can reach when they collide with league-wide drug policies that are hammered out at the bargaining table, a question with potential ripple effects for players across the NFL, according to Law360.
By sending Gregory’s case back to Colorado, Judge Crews has effectively handed state courts the task of deciding how much weight to give a player’s medically prescribed treatment when it clashes with a collectively bargained discipline system.
