Pa. high school football booster booted for giving players drug made popular by Joe Rogan, RFK Jr.

A Pennsylvania school district has given the boot to a booster who it said gave football players a synthetic drug used to treat a rare condition and even detect cancer prior to a recent football game.

Mercer Area School District made the announcement in a letter that it sent out to parents on Monday addressing the matter. In the letter, which the district also shared with PennLive, Mercer Area Supt. Of Education Richard Rowe said that “there was a confirmed incident of an individual entering a locker room and distributing a liquid named Methylene Blue to several football players on September 5, 2025.”

Rowe then laid out six actions that the district has taken in response. Among those, he said that all parents and students that “may have been exposed to this incident have been notified.”

Rowe also said that “the individual involved in the incident has been banned from all District property, including public extracurricular events,” and that local law enforcement and child line have been notified.

Rowe also said a “review of procedure regarding building and locker room access and supervision has been done and recommendations have been implemented.”

“We will continue to enhance and review our site security in an on-going manner,” he said. “Additionally, we will continue to work with local law enforcement and emergency services to ensure the best practices are implemented for the safety of our children.”

Methylene blue is an old compound — it dates back to 1876 — and it was not always used for medicinal reasons. In fact, Harvard Health calls it one of the world’s first organic dies, and notes that it was originally used to dye cotton before moving on to be used in the treatment of malaria.

Harvard Health said the compound is also used off-label for treating a long list of things such as vasodilatory shock, as an antidote to cyanide poisoning, and to help diagnose, manage, or improve the treatment of various types of cancers.

It is now mainly used to treat Methemoglobinemia, a rare blood disorder that affects how red blood cells deliver oxygen throughout the body.

But the compound can also be bought easily, legally and cheaply online at sites such as Amazon, and it has picked up steam for other off-label uses with many online users touting benefits such as increased energy and cognitive ability.

That popularlty has been spurred along thanks to celebrities such as Joe Rogan, who has discussed the drug on his podcast several times, and even RFK Jr., who has been the subject of several stories regarding the compound after he was spotted putting a blue dye in his drink during a flight.

Mercer lost its Sept. 5 game 32-0 to Reynolds.