Former Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl opponent opens up about healing from personal trauma

USA Today

a day ago

This week, Chiefs Wire's Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Jon Feliciano, a recently retired offensive guard who played ten seasons in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, and San Francisco 49ers. The conversation explored how psychedelic therapy is helping him heal from PTSD, depression, and family issues.
On Wednesday, June 18, at Psychedelic Science 2025—the world's largest psychedelic conference, Feliciano will be joined by fellow NFL standouts Jordan Poyer and Robert Gallery, who will headline a keynote conversation titled Unseen Work: Healing Behind the Highlights.
"I grew up in a physically and mentally abusive household, and my whole life, I was just focused on making it to the NFL. Make it to the NFL, and my life would be great. Things would be fine. You make it to the NFL and realize things will only get worse now that you have money. Now, everyone's trying to dig in your pockets. The family aspect gets worse," said Feliciano, "My mother's calling me, threatening me to go to ESPN and say, 'I'm on drugs' or do stuff like that. Then I ended up losing my best friend, my second year in the league, who was like my brother, who knew everything about my life, and the one person I could always lean on."
The veteran offensive lineman was feeling the stress and strain of family problems while playing in the NFL and was looking for ways to cope.
"Up to that point, I didn't smoke, I didn't drink, I didn't do anything. When he passed away, I got into a real bad phase with alcohol and marijuana; I was having suicidal thoughts, just became a shell of myself," said Feliciano, "It wasn't until I watched the Joe Rogan podcast. Rick Doblin (Founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) was on it, and it opened my mind to other methods of healing. So, I started micro-dosing mushrooms. And then the big thing for me was DMT (Dimethyltryptamine), sitting in my room with the thought, 'Why do I feel this way?' How can I be better for my wife and my daughter at the time? That was my introduction, and I started doing DMT probably two or three times a year. And for me, DMT has been my lifesaver."
On February 20, 2025, Feliciano announced his retirement from the NFL. He notably recalled his experience playing against the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII as a member of the 49ers.
"The Super Bowl, honestly, if it weren't my ninth year in the league when I went to Super Bowl if it was earlier on in my career, I believe it would have been a lot mentally. Still, I was in a mindset where I could enjoy every minute," said Feliciano. "People always ask me, like, leading up to it, did it feel different? I was like, No, the only time it felt different than a regular game was standing on the sideline right before the game started when, you know, they had, like, I think it was like Post Malone and someone else singing and, staring across the Chiefs again, me, and Jordan (Poyer) had a long history with the Chiefs, was standing across from them again. The only thing that was, the only time it felt different, was just right before the ball was kicked off."
Feliciano revealed the atmosphere in the locker rooms regarding conversations on the use of psychedelics.
"There wasn't a conversation you could have in the locker room then. I brought it up to some guys, and everyone looked at me as if I were crazy. There was one other Buffalo (Bills) guy with whom I had gotten to do DMT with me. We ended up doing it every year before training camp, just to set our mind right." said Feliciano, "But the stigma of psychedelics, that's something that you didn't want to have on you being in the NFL, in the locker room, especially if the trainers here, or gets back to upstairs, people, they're gonna, think you're a drug addict or something. So you kept that on the down low. I will say that over the last couple of years, I feel like that has changed, whether it's because of the Aaron Rodgers (Netflix) documentary or it might have just been because I was in San Francisco."