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Chris Ball isn’t just rewriting the playbook—he’s growing a whole new game. The former collegiate and professional football player turned cannabis entrepreneur is the founder and CEO of Ball Family Farms, Los Angeles’ first vertically integrated, Black-owned, Social Equity-licensed indoor cannabis facility. Born and raised in Southern California, Ball’s story is rooted in grit, hustle, and authenticity. Once a standout athlete grinding through junior college and the NFL pipeline, he now cultivates culture and community with the same relentless spirit that earned him tackles on the field.

What started as a means to get by has transformed into a cannabis empire built from decades of passion. Ball Family Farms (BFF) burst onto the scene in 2018 with Daniel Larusso, a strain inspired by Ball’s love for The Karate Kid, and has since expanded its library with iconic drops like Dragonfly Jones and Nino Brown. Chris has built his brand without outside investors, setting a standard for Black excellence and authenticity in cannabis. With collaborations alongside Ricky Williams, Lena Waithe, and actor J. Alphonse Nicholson, Ball is leveraging his cultural currency to push the industry forward—on his own terms.

Now, with his Rare Breeds Project opening doors for new cultivators and his cultivation game dialed into a relentless pursuit of the “perfect 63 days,” Chris Ball sat down with Jay of Sports Cannabis Magazine for an exclusive conversation. From NFL locker rooms to legal grow rooms, he opens up about pain management, legacy building, systemic challenges, and the spiritual parallels between the gridiron and the grow-op. His playbook is no secret—work hard, stay true, and cultivate from the ground up.

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

Chris Ball in Three Words?

Chris Ball:

Relentless, Passionate, and Fierce

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

As a former athlete, how has cannabis helped you both physically and mentally after your football career?

Chris Ball:

“Cannabis has helped me physically after my football career because it relaxes me and it helps with my back pain. During my football career, I suffered two herniated discs from the constant pounding on my head. Now I have those bulging discs, so I typically try to smoke at night right before I go to bed. It helps me with the pain and helps me sleep a good eight hours without interruption. That’s been the biggest thing physically. Mentally, it’s just my life now and what I do for a living. It’s why I get up every single day. It’s kind of like football. It’s a sport; I’m constantly chasing a perfect game and, in this case, a perfect 63 days in a cultivation room. It’s my joy; it’s my passion. It’s helped me a lot and taken the place of football.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

You’ve always loved the competitive nature of football, but how has cannabis changed how you approach competition today?

Chris Ball:

“I wouldn’t say cannabis changed my approach to competition. I would say football has changed the way or has influenced the way that I approach cannabis and the competition of cannabis. Right? In cultivation, there’s all kinds of new innovations coming out every year. It’s the reason why we go to MJ BizCon. There’s so much R and D going into cannabis. The way we grow cannabis today is completely different from the way I grew it 10 years ago, with crop steering all the automation. My work ethic and how I approached the football game to play at the highest level required a lot of discipline and a lot of relentless pursuit. I’ve brought that mentality over into the cannabis and cultivation spaces, where I’m constantly chasing innovation. I’m constantly chasing how to grow a perfect 63 days. It’s competition. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, but it never ends. It’s constant, just like a football game week after week.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

Football is a violent sport, and recovery is a huge part of it. Do you think cannabis should be a go-to for athletes post-game?

Chris Ball:

“100 % cannabis is much better than the alternatives. When I’m speaking of alternatives, I’m speaking of opiates, right? Because we all took them. If you played at the collegiate level, the opiates start to come into play. I believe that cannabis should be integrated into all sports as an alternative medicine. It works, it’s a great pain reliever, and it has so many other great properties and uses. So yes, absolutely.

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

Ball Family Farms in one sentence?

Chris Ball:

“Cultivating the culture from the ground up.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

What is the mission behind your company, and how does it reflect your personal journey with cannabis?

Chris Ball:

“Ball Family Farms’s mission is to stay true and authentic to the culture of what we’re doing. A lot of people have come into the cannabis space, and they’re not authentic. They haven’t grown up in this culture. They don’t understand this culture. With Ball Family Farms, our mission is to cultivate the culture from the ground up. We want to make sure that we keep the cannabis culture authentic. That’s everything that we do here. right? From my social equity status to me being incarcerated for cannabis back in 2010.

I grew up doing this. started selling weed out of my backpack at 16 years old. I understand the culture. I understand what it takes. Now, being one of the top cultivators in California, I understand that aspect of it, too. With Ball Family Farms, our main goal is to just stay true and authentic to the culture of what we’re doing. We don’t want to be considered chads. We don’t want to sell out. We want to do what we’re supposed to do in this industry.

We make sure that our consumers, the real consumers, get a quality product at a reasonable price and that they know they’re supporting an authentic brand and and an authentic CEO.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

Your brand is built on quality and sustainability. How does that philosophy shape the way you approach your cultivation process?

Chris Ball:

“I mean, it’s a huge part, right? It’s the reason why we choose to grow in living soil. We use dirt, feed our plants our water, let the plants take the necessary nutrients they need, and all of the things we know we’re doing are in God’s way. We want to be legends of the craft.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

Starting a cannabis company as a former athlete is no small feat. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when launching Ball Family Farms, and how did you overcome them?

Chris Ball:

“Some of my biggest challenges when starting Ball Family Farms was the MEP process, the licensing process, and the permitting process. As a grower, I started growing back in 2010, and cannabis wasn’t legal then. It was a different process. Today, when doing this legally and getting our license, I had to learn about permitting. I had to learn about mechanical, electrical and plumbing. I had to learn about every single thing there is. I had to learn about insurance, I had to learn about employment taxes, so all of those things were the most difficult things for me. Growing the weed and selling the weed wasn’t hard. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole life; it was doing it in a legal framework, which was the most challenging”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

How has being a part of the cannabis industry influenced your view on social equity, especially as it relates to communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs?

Chris Ball:

“In my personal opinion, social equity and those programs are broken. They do not work. Being a social equity applicant and trying to navigate a world and a business where the state and the city are trying to promote equality, the resources just aren’t there. It’s one of the main reasons we’re starting our Rare Breeds Project, right?

We’re trying to incubate young, talented individuals who may not have the legal platform that Ball Family Farms has, bring them in, incubate them under our umbrella, and give them the proper tools and resources to have a chance to work or maybe even have their own brand in the space at some point. But from an equity standpoint and how everything has shaped up, it hasn’t worked, in my opinion, and it needs work.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

What are some of the biggest barriers you’ve seen for Black entrepreneurs in cannabis, and how can the industry better support diverse ownership and leadership?

Chris Ball
“Funding, funding, funding. There are no two ifs, ands, or buts about it. As people of color, we just don’t have access to the type of funding that others do. If we had that, I think you’d see a lot more successful brands and cultural brands emerge.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

For others following in your footsteps, what advice would you offer them?

Chris Ball:

If you’re gonna come into this space, you gotta love it. Do not come into the cannabis space if you think you’re gonna make a quick buck. My advice to anyone coming into the cannabis space is to find something about it that you love, whether it’s cultivation, distribution, or other ancillary areas of the space that you can participate in that drive you, and you’re excited about. If you come here just for money, you won’t be happy and will not succeed because it is hard work.

As the conversation shifted from deep reflections to cultural insights, we couldn’t let Chris Ball leave the huddle without putting him through our signature two-minute drill. Just like on the field, it’s all about quick reads, instinct, and raw authenticity. From favourite terpenes to legendary locker room vibes—this is Chris Ball, unfiltered.

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

How do you break the stigma daily?

Chris Ball:

“I keep it professional. I am a real guy, have a real job, and I’m like everyone else.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

What is your favourite terpene, and why?

Chris Ball:

Linalool is my favourite terpene because it tastes like candy.

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

If you must pick just one; Blunt, Dab, Pre Roll or Flower?

Chris Ball:

“Flower 100%.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

Favourite Strain and why?

Chris Ball:

Skittles. Because it’s full of Linalool.

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

If cannabis had a nickname in the NFL locker room, what do you think it would be? “The Hail Mary” or “The Game Changer”?

Chris Ball:

“The delay of the game.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

You’ve done it all on the field—from touchdowns to tackles—what’s the most “high” (pun intended) moment you’d compare to the first time you felt the benefits of cannabis?

Chris Ball:

“It was the first time I got my quarterback sack.”

Jay | Sports Cannabis:

If you had to name a cannabis strain after a football move or play, what would it be? 

Chris Ball:

“The longest yard, and I’ll let everybody do their research on that.”

Jay | Sports Cananbis:

If you could roll a joint with any athlete, past or present, who would it be and why?

Chris Ball:

“Marshawn Lynch, cuz he’s funny as hell, and we’re both Golden Bears.”