(Photo credit: Getty Images).
As the NFL heads into the divisional round of the 2026 playoffs, seven of the eight teams still alive in the postseason are located in states where recreational marijuana is legal for those 21 and older.
The Buffalo Bills represent New York, where voters approved adult-use marijuana in 2021 and retail sales are now well established. The Denver Broncos hail from Colorado, and the Seattle Seahawks play in Washington, which were the first two states in nation to legalize recreational marijuana back in 2012.
California, which legalized recreational cannabis in 2016 and now has the largest legal cannabis market in the nation, is represented twice, with both the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams .
In the Northeast, the New England Patriots represent Massachusetts, which also legalized adult-use marijuana in 2016 and has since built a robust retail industry. The Chicago Bears round out the group from Illinois, where recreational marijuana sales began in 2020 and have consistently generated hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.
The lone exception among the remaining teams is the Houston Texans. Texas continues to prohibit recreational marijuana, maintaining some of the strictest cannabis laws in the country despite growing national support for legalization.
While there is no causal link between marijuana policy and playoff success, the makeup of this year’s divisional round highlights just how dominant legalization states have become in professional sports markets. With a strong majority of remaining teams coming from states that allow recreational marijuana, the NFL postseason offers a small but telling snapshot of how much the legal landscape has shifted across the United States in recent years.
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