The NFL’s 2025 season came with several new rule changes, but one, in particular, has left most players hurt: the league’s decision to ban teams from providing smelling salts on game days.
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While players can still bring their own, the league’s Head, Neck, and Spine Committee recommended that teams stop distributing ammonia inhalants altogether following an FDA warning in 2024.
The FDA had cited concerns about the lack of evidence proving their safety or effectiveness and warned that ammonia inhalants could potentially mask concussion symptoms.
As a result, the NFL informed teams that “clubs are prohibited from providing or supplying ammonia in any form during games,” a rule that now applies across sidelines, locker rooms, and pregame warmups.
The NFL’s major decision wasn’t met kindly by players like George Kittle, who once interrupted an NFL Network interview earlier this year to air his frustration. “Our team got a memo today that smelling salts and ammonia packets were made illegal in the NFL. I’ve been distraught all day… I considered retirement,” Kittle joked.
So while the debate continues among players, Cam Newton recently took fans back to a time when smelling salts were legal and, in the Panthers’ case, a full-blown pregame ritual.
Reacting to a Bussin’ With The Boys clip where Taylor Lewan & Co. were seen using smelling salts, Newton shared a hilarious memory from his Carolina Panthers days involving former teammate Mike Tolbert and head coach Ron Rivera.
“First of all, it’s ammonia,” Newton began. “They use this as a tactic when you get knocked out… but some players use it to just get going.”
Then came the story. “Mike Tolbert would pop at least 15 to 20 smelling salts in a water bottle… It’s so strong that if you pop one right here, you’d be like, ‘Dang, what’s that?’ It burns — like wasabi. Eyes water up,” Newton recalled.
The ex-Panthers QB then revealed that Tolbert used to pour all the water out of the bottle, fill it with just the ammonia packs, and seal the cap, creating a small bomb of fumes: “We were about to go up for a team prayer, and Mike said, ‘Go on Coach, hit it one time.’ Coach Rivera was about to smell it, and Mike squeezed the bottle. It was like a surge of that smell — boom!”
However much to everyone’s surprise, the usually grumpy-looking Ron Rivera took it like a champ. “After that, every game it became a ritual. Coach Rivera would smell the ammonia,” Cam Newton said, laughing. “He wanted to be around the guys and the atmosphere. It wasn’t so serious — it was lighthearted. It loosened us up before games,” the former NFL MVP added.
Cam Newton’s story — mainly bizarre, subtly wholesome — is perhaps why players like Kittle seemed to be distraught with the ban. After all, how many items in the NFL world exist that can not only hype you up for a match but also create such little locker-room quirks that helped bond teams before battle?
