A player leans over, snaps open a small capsule, and inhales. His eyes suddenly widen, like he’s been shocked awake. That’s the ritual Ezekiel Elliott and others embraced years ago with ammonia capsules known as smelling salts. In 2017, Elliott admitted he’d crack open as many as eight capsules during a single game. Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence used them because coffee upset his stomach. “The ammonia wakes you up, opens your eyes,” Lawrence said in 2017. Tom Brady? Cameras once caught him passing cups of ammonia around the Patriots‘ bench like it was Gatorade. He brushed it off at the time: “We all do it. It’s kind of a receiver-and-quarterback thing.”

On 5th August, the league decided it had seen enough. A memo sent to all 32 teams prohibited clubs from supplying smelling salts – capsules, inhalers, cups, any form of ammonia – on game days. The decision came after the FDA issued a warning in 2024 about “the lack of evidence supporting the safety or efficacy” of ammonia inhalants, adding they could “mask certain neurologic signs and symptoms, including some potential signs of concussion.” That advice led the NFL’s head, neck and spine committee to recommend a ban.

George Kittle took it personally. The 49ers tight end stormed onto the NFL Network’s interview at training camp and delivered what he called a grievance. “Our team had a memo today that smelling salts and ammonia packets were made illegal in the NFL, and I’ve been distraught all day,” he said. “I considered retirement. We have got to figure out a middle ground here, guys. Somebody help me out. Somebody come up with a good idea. That’s all I had to get out there. Get that off my chest.”

The ninth-year 49ers veteran wasn’t joking about his routine. He admitted he pops a capsule before ‘every offensive drive.’ For him, smelling salts aren’t a gimmick. They’re part of the way he flips the switch. And now, at least if you take his words for gospel, then that part of the ritual is no longer there. The problem is – George Kittle’s not entirely right. Because it has become an ongoing issue in the NFL. 

Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw once confessed: “When I played for the Steelers and I got my bell rung, I’d take smelling salts and go right back out there. All of us did that.” Back then, it was part superstition, part survival. And in the NFL, where the line between medicine and madness has always been thin, it became routine. A former NFL trainer said, “They’re also a classic, comical example of how NFL players think. If one guy does it and he has even some small bit of success with his new routine or superstition, the next week everyone will be doing it.” But that brings us to the main question: can the NFL stop the players from using smelling salts?

Smelling salts are still a player’s choice

Here’s the distinction: The NFL can stop teams from handing out ammonia capsules. It cannot stop players from using them. Without an agreement with the NFLPA, the league has no authority to ban individual players from keeping them on the sideline. Translation: Much ado but nothing.

That means George Kittle could, in theory, walk into Levi’s Stadium with a bag labeled ‘George’s smelling salts’ and go through a capsule every possession. What the new rule prohibits is trainers, doctors, or equipment staff from handing it to him. The league drew a hard line: no club personnel can provide or supply ammonia in any form.

The medical reasoning is clear. Smelling salts create a “fight-or-flight” response, as the Cleveland Clinic described in 2023, but they can also mask concussion symptoms. Josh Allen’s 2024 concussion scare is still fresh in the league’s memory. That’s why the NFL wants them out of the team’s hands. But unless players themselves agree, the salts aren’t going anywhere. And that’s the part that makes Kittle’s theatrics less about retirement and more about routine – an old NFL habit that’s hard to break.