Latest / Finding New Waters / From the NFL to Redemption: Jeff Hatch’s Recovery Story
Transcript
- 0:00My, my alcoholism during this time was ever present and ever
- 0:04morphing. I was always trying to find a
- 0:08way to get the spiritual salve that I needed from alcohol and
- 0:13drugs, but also maintain my capacity to be successful at a
- 0:18highland. What's really sad about it is
- 0:21that I was actually basically, I was passed out on the couch.
- 0:25You know, I was, I was high the whole time and I got roused by
- 0:30the call and you can see me like, you know, you can see me
- 0:32sleep and and you know, great excuse.
- 0:35I'm tired and it's been a long process and all the stuff.
- 0:38But really, I was loaded man. All right.
- 0:40Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another edition of
- 0:43Finding New Waters. My name is Bea Reeves.
- 0:46I'm the Director of Business Development here at New Waters.
- 0:49And our very special guest today is Jeff Hatch.
- 0:54And Jeff, I met about four years ago in Atlanta and then
- 0:59reconnected with him in Seattle like 4 days ago or so.
- 1:03And he's recently joined some friends of ours who one's been
- 1:06on the program at Eagle Creek Ranch Recovery in Idaho.
- 1:10And I just wanted to say special welcome and thank you for being
- 1:13here, Jeff. Thank you for having me, Bea
- 1:16Reeves. I'm grateful to be here with
- 1:18you, man. Yeah, excited to talk to you.
- 1:21Yeah, when I first met you, I mean, somebody told me that, you
- 1:24know, introduced me to you and they're like, you know, he
- 1:26played in the NFL. And so Jeff, I mean, I, I'm sure
- 1:29you're sick of talking about it, but you know what, I don't
- 1:31really care 'cause we want to hear about it.
- 1:33And so Jeff was an NFL player, played college at the at Upenn
- 1:39and, you know, now he's been in our field for about the same,
- 1:43about the same amount of time I have about 5 years.
- 1:45Is that about right? Well, I actually started, I
- 1:49stepped away for a minute, but I actually started.
- 1:52The first time I started working in the field was really shortly
- 1:55after I retired and went to treatment.
- 1:57I mean, the shocking story in our business, right?
- 2:00I got hired by the place I went to treatment at and that was
- 2:03actually way back in 2006. Oh wow.
- 2:07OK. And then like I said, I kind of,
- 2:11I was there for a while, faded, faded away from the field for a
- 2:13minute and then, you know, came back probably about that time
- 2:16about five years ago. OK, cool.
- 2:19Well, from what I've, you know, what we talked about and you're
- 2:21one of those people where like I start talking and then I
- 2:24realized I would love for you to be on the podcast.
- 2:25I'm like, I'm all right, I'm just going to not talk to him
- 2:27again until we do this. So I it's true because I don't
- 2:31respect, you know, I don't want to waste it all.
- 2:34And so, and you know, I did some cursory research, so I just, we
- 2:38want to hear from you, man. This is about you.
- 2:40This isn't about us. But so just, you know, lay it
- 2:43on. It's like, how did you, you
- 2:45know, tell us about your career and how it led to you getting
- 2:48sober and getting into the field and all that?
- 2:51Yeah. Yeah.
- 2:51Well, I think first of all, I appreciate that it keeps it way
- 2:56more organic if we haven't talked about this 14 times
- 2:59before we get on here to do this.
- 3:01So I appreciate that. And you know, I mean, I'm a guy.
- 3:04I would say I'm, I'm, I'm a typical person with alcoholism
- 3:08in the sense that when I trace it back, I think I was probably
- 3:11born wrestles irritable and discontent.
- 3:16You know, I found my medicine at 13 with alcohol, but I was, I
- 3:21was sharp enough at the time to know that there would be a time.
- 3:26This is my thought at the time. I'll achieve enough stuff.
- 3:29Third dimensionally material plane that I will no longer feel
- 3:35this way about myself and I won't have to to drink alcohol
- 3:39or use drugs anymore right. So I was 100% convinced I'd have
- 3:441/3 dimensional solution to 1/4 dimensional problem.
- 3:47But so I tried to do that man. And it, and it really drove me,
- 3:51You know, my, my father was alcoholic and I think another
- 3:55driver for me was trying to bring joy into a household that
- 3:59was not joyful. And that's not to say I wasn't
- 4:02loved. And my parents didn't try to do
- 4:04their best by me and my sister. It's just, it was a, it was an
- 4:07environment where it was, it was sad a lot of times.
- 4:12And I wanted to bring happiness. And I thought the best way to do
- 4:15that was to, you know, achieve great things.
- 4:18And so I tried to do that, you know, and I'll just Fast
- 4:22forward, you know, I'll tell you, I, I didn't play football
- 4:24since I was a junior in high school.
- 4:25Actually, I was a basketball player really.
- 4:28I mean, I was everything growing up sports wise.
- 4:30And then I kind of focused on basketball and actually
- 4:32transferred to a school to play basketball there before my
- 4:35junior in high school. And the football coach came in
- 4:38the gym and I was in there shooting around.
- 4:40And at that point I was probably like 6-5 and like 250.
- 4:44And he was like, look, we have 20 guys on the team.
- 4:48You're bigger than everybody at the school.
- 4:50Will you please play football? And I was like, if you ask my
- 4:54mom and she says it's OK, I absolutely will.
- 4:57And he did. And she said, OK.
- 4:59And that really changed the course of my life.
- 5:02You know, I mean, I, I was a good enough basketball player
- 5:05that I would have played in college.
- 5:06Patriot League, Ivy League level, service Academy level.
- 5:11But once football started, it was really it was it was a game
- 5:15that I really just took to. I had AI had an ability for it
- 5:18early. And then also it was the first
- 5:20time like I had been big since I was born.
- 5:24You know, I was as tall as my teacher in the third grade,
- 5:26right? Like all the things.
- 5:27So not only did I have alcoholism, but I also had this
- 5:31other separating factor from my peers in the sense that I was a
- 5:35lot bigger than everyone and I was not like an aggressive alpha
- 5:39type kid. So I got picked on a lot.
- 5:42And I remember when I started playing football, it was this
- 5:44opportunity to kind of like expel all this suppressed
- 5:50aggression and be rewarded and cheered for it.
- 5:55And I, I loved it, you know, so I went to college at Penn and,
- 6:00and went to play football there and became more successful as I
- 6:06went with the game. And by the time I was a senior,
- 6:08I was the first team all American.
- 6:10And and that's one AA level, right?
- 6:12We were not like Big 10 ACC level, right?
- 6:16We're talking about University of Pennsylvania.
- 6:18So it's, it's the Ivy League. But I was still a first team all
- 6:21American at that level and was a part of a documentary called
- 6:27Hey, Rookie, Welcome to the NFL. It was the first year ESPN did
- 6:30it and they asked me to do that. And another documentary for
- 6:33CNNSI called Goal to Go that was kind of following my path from
- 6:38the Ivy League to the NFL. And and I say that to say that
- 6:41life got really big really fast, you know, and my my alcoholism
- 6:45during this time was ever present and ever morphing.
- 6:52I was always trying to find a way to get the spiritual salve
- 7:00that I needed from alcohol and drugs, but also maintain my
- 7:04capacity to be successful at a high level.
- 7:10And so I was able to do it. And I ended up getting drafted
- 7:12by the Giants in the third round in 2002.
- 7:15And you know, again, like life changed in in that moment.
- 7:21And I'll tell you this, I, I remember I was mentioning to
- 7:23somebody last week that because of those documentaries, I have
- 7:27the footage of, of me getting the call when I got drafted by
- 7:30the Giants. And what's really sad about it
- 7:35is that I was actually basically, I was passed out on
- 7:38the couch. You know, I was, I was high the
- 7:41whole time and I got roused by the call And you can see me
- 7:45like, you know, you can see me sleep and, and you know, great
- 7:49excuse. I'm tired and it's been a long
- 7:51process and all this stuff, but really I was loaded, man.
- 7:56And so that was kind of the masquerade, right?
- 7:58And and me and you talking now, I'll tell you this is that while
- 8:02I was training for the draft, what happens when you get when
- 8:05you get to that level is like, I remember for me what happened
- 8:08was my senior at college, the fourth game of the season when
- 8:11we're playing Columbia at Columbia.
- 8:14I walk off the field after the game and a guy in a suit comes
- 8:16up to me and hands me a business card and says I'm an agent.
- 8:19And I think you got a chance to GoPro and I would love to
- 8:21represent you. And that had never happened
- 8:24before. And from there it exploded.
- 8:31And so once I hired an agent, they send you basically to train
- 8:35in the skill set required to be successful, your pro day, your
- 8:3940 yard dash, your shuttle, your vertical, your bench.
- 8:44And I and he did that and I went to a a speed and strength
- 8:47training school and I ended up injuring my back while I was
- 8:49there. Can I ask you a question, a
- 8:53backup question? If you're in college before NIL
- 8:56and you and you hire an agent, what does that look like in
- 8:58terms of monetary, you know, transaction?
- 9:01Well, they're just, they're paying for everything with the
- 9:05expectation that you're going to reimburse them with the
- 9:08percentage of your contract that comes.
- 9:11So I think it's a guessing game for them a little bit now.
- 9:13I, I don't, I can't even imagine what it looks like now, you
- 9:16know, but so, yeah, so I, I do that and I, I injured my back
- 9:22and, you know, basically what we came to realize was that I had
- 9:24herniated a disc and my agent was like, look, we have two
- 9:29options. One, we disclose you don't get
- 9:31drafted and we pay for the surgery and then have to try to
- 9:35get you signed as a free agent the next year.
- 9:38Or you push through, take some painkillers, push through as
- 9:41long as you can, get drafted as high as you can.
- 9:45And then once they've been invested in you and like, it
- 9:47gets bad enough that you need surgery, then you can raise the
- 9:49white flag and, and get the surgery.
- 9:51And, but I remember that being the first time in my life
- 9:55walking through that, where I was like carrying like a big
- 9:58fraudulent. I felt very fraudulent, you
- 10:01know, right. And I think that comes to all of
- 10:04us that end up in, in, in this space of like requiring some
- 10:08semblance of treatment for our alcoholism, that there's a
- 10:10period of time where we feel like real fraudulent in our
- 10:14behavior and actions. And, and that was the first time
- 10:16I felt that way. And I remember it was my, my
- 10:21rookie year. So, so that's what happened.
- 10:22I end up, I'm get drafted in the third round.
- 10:24I go to the giants, I, I fight as long as I can.
- 10:26And I finally like take a hit that just knocks me out and I
- 10:30have to get surgery. I got put on engine reserve my
- 10:32rookie year. I remember right around that
- 10:36time coming home to my townhouse and I had this like in my mind,
- 10:42I had this list of material achievements that I was going to
- 10:47get. And then at the end of achieving
- 10:49those things, I would be happy and satisfied and I wouldn't
- 10:51have to drink and drug. And so it was my rookie year in
- 10:54the NFL and you know, I had, I had graduated from Penn with a
- 10:57degree in political science, philosophy and economics.
- 11:01I won the President's Award for community service.
- 11:05I'd been a first team All American and a third round draft
- 11:07pick. I'd signed my $1,000,000
- 11:09contract, bought my first house, my car, all the stuff.
- 11:14And I still hated myself. And I was like, I had no idea at
- 11:19that time that I was dealing with alcoholism.
- 11:21I just, it was just a really scary thought of like, Oh no.
- 11:26And and you know, my, my addiction really went off the
- 11:29rails from there. I spent really the entirety of
- 11:33my NFL career, those four years up to that point in the worst
- 11:38shape I'd ever been with my disease.
- 11:39You know, I had easy access. I had the means to get whatever
- 11:43I wanted. And so that looked like me, you
- 11:45know, just, this is in 2002 through 2006.
- 11:52So really like just just taking copious amounts of painkillers,
- 11:57smoking a bunch of marijuana, drinking a bunch of alcohol,
- 12:00some cocaine here and there, you know, stuff like that.
- 12:02And my 4th year I was with the Buccaneers and I got injured
- 12:09again and had to get a spinal fusion or retire.
- 12:12And so that was like the, that was a big one.
- 12:17Yeah, well, I mean, just backing up, I mean, it sounds like, you
- 12:19know, you knew looking back, you drank, you were born and had the
- 12:23ISM and then found the solution early in alcohol, but weren't
- 12:29necessarily really trying to cover up anything yet other
- 12:33than, you know, you're trying to bring some joy into the family
- 12:35home. And then then then as you can,
- 12:39you're all of us. You're this really tall kind of
- 12:41gentle giant, which even though being tall is, you know, about
- 12:46like evolutionary standards is probably more, you know,
- 12:50desirable than being like a small.
- 12:53But it's still you still put set you apart on some level, but
- 12:56then you start really, like you said, like this 3D game of
- 12:59trying to get external fill of this void with external factors.
- 13:04But then you really had then, then you've got this injury,
- 13:07which is physical pain, which needs to be dealt with.
- 13:10But then also more importantly, now you've got this real hole in
- 13:14your heart from this fraudulent act.
- 13:17And now to cover that up takes even more this, you know, I'm
- 13:21just now kind of extrapolating my own experiences with this.
- 13:25Like, the more stuff I need to cover up and the bigger the
- 13:27stuff it is, the more dirt has to be piled on top of it, you
- 13:31know? And then.
- 13:33Yeah. And then now, you know, years of
- 13:35that and with the injuries and then all the money.
- 13:37I mean, I can just see this being like a, you know, a powder
- 13:40keg. You're absolutely right.
- 13:45And I think, I think that I, I, I didn't know, again, I didn't
- 13:51know what I was really dealing with at that point, but it was a
- 13:56powder Kagan. So when I had that spinal fusion
- 13:59and and couldn't play anymore, that was really a moment of, you
- 14:03know, one of the great things about being an alcoholic is I
- 14:05can justify and rationalize any behavior to make myself feel
- 14:13better about what I'm doing right.
- 14:14And, and I had a really good excuse that like, the things I'm
- 14:18doing to perform at this level are what they are.
- 14:23But I'm in rarefied air here. So you can't, you don't get to
- 14:26tell me what I can or can't do to to make it through the day as
- 14:31an NFL football player. I'm going to do what I have to
- 14:33do. It was after the injury, though,
- 14:35that I was no longer an NFL football player, that I was just
- 14:38a guy with like a really bad addiction problem.
- 14:42Yeah, well, I mean, I certainly didn't play in the NFL, but you
- 14:46know, I totally relate to that because when I my dad was
- 14:49diagnosed with cancer in 2017 in June and I was very sad of, you
- 14:54know, I love my dad very close. I mean, I was, but I was also
- 14:58like, you know what? Nobody can nobody can question
- 15:01me. You know, who are you to
- 15:02question me? Your dad's not the one dying.
- 15:04You know, I can, I can self medicate.
- 15:06And then he did die and then that would have been more of an
- 15:08excuse. But then guess what?
- 15:10Like that excuse was gone and I was left with my own soul
- 15:16sickness, my thoughts and my addiction.
- 15:18And that was, you know, in a way, it kind of exacerbated and
- 15:24accelerated what was already kind of happening.
- 15:26And maybe that happened for you too.
- 15:28But it but I but I know what you mean.
- 15:29It's like, who are you to question me?
- 15:31You had this sort of a different version of that.
- 15:33Like I am a NFL football player. I was a all American third round
- 15:37draft. You know, what do you who were
- 15:39you to question me? And do you know how hard it is
- 15:41to get through an NFL season? How much pain I'm in?
- 15:44I mean, I had like my own kind of, you know, like emotional
- 15:48pain version of that. It like, you know, at least
- 15:49according to me and my rationalization, you know.
- 15:52Absolutely, man, I love that you said that soul sickness too.
- 15:56That's a really good, I think that's a good way for people who
- 15:59don't understand what we have to kind of maybe get a little bit
- 16:02of a grasp on it. And I'm sorry you went through
- 16:04that. That's that's incredibly trying.
- 16:08You know, my lost my dad three years ago.
- 16:10It was not cancer. It was it was a slow, steady
- 16:14decline over a period of time. So it was, I think probably
- 16:18easier to process as a result of that.
- 16:21But it doesn't kind of hold. It gets put in you from that
- 16:24experience. And, you know, just to speak on
- 16:27that for a second, you know, we recently we just lost a pet last
- 16:32Thursday. It was a it was a cat that my my
- 16:34wife had had for its entire life.
- 16:36She got it when I was six weeks old and died at 19.
- 16:40And this is that thing of, of what what I at least try to do
- 16:46with life is like, OK, so she's experiencing a level of grief
- 16:49and pain around losing this animal that she really has an
- 16:52experience. She's not lost anyone in her
- 16:54family close to her. And I think this is probably the
- 16:56most loved thing she's ever lost.
- 16:59And for me to be able to kind of sit with her and like, talk
- 17:02about what my grief process felt like and be present for her as
- 17:07she goes through hers, right? Like, I think that's just a
- 17:10microcosm of like what my whole existence is about in terms of
- 17:14how do I be useful and helpful. Well, if I can take these
- 17:17experiences that were incredibly painful and trying to then help
- 17:21someone else, it just changes the texture internally of what
- 17:24those things look and feel like. And so, you know, I always say
- 17:29to get new guys when I work with them.
- 17:30Like your unique experience is going to be the thing that helps
- 17:33some guy who walks in the rooms. You don't know who it's going to
- 17:35be. But like if it hasn't happened
- 17:37yet, I'm sure somewhere along the way there's going to be a
- 17:40newcomer whose dad is going through a situation like your
- 17:43dad did. And like, God willing, you'll be
- 17:46able to be there and like reach a hand out to that dude and help
- 17:49him in a way that I never could, which is, you know, this, this
- 17:52incredible. I, I feel like that's the divine
- 17:55piece of, of, of what recovery looks like, right?
- 17:58Like that's this piece of it. That's you just can't put words
- 18:02on what that is. Absolutely.
- 18:04And you know, and and being able to share our experience,
- 18:06strength and hope is not limited to our experience with drugs and
- 18:09alcohol. I mean, it's can be with grief
- 18:10and with death and just life experiences.
- 18:12And then on that same note, I mean, you're exactly right.
- 18:15And the answer is yes, I have had that happened.
- 18:18I mean, just it just recently I had a situation where I made a
- 18:20really stupid purchase, you know, and when I get, you know,
- 18:24when I do stupid stuff sober, I'm like, I'm like, I just can't
- 18:28believe it that I'm still capable of doing stuff like
- 18:31this. And my sponsor was like, go
- 18:34share about it. And then today when you go to
- 18:37this meeting and I guarantee you people will come up to you
- 18:39after. And and he was exactly right.
- 18:42And the thing, and again, I mean, this is like a kind of
- 18:44trivial version of it, but it's true.
- 18:45And The thing is, if if, you know, I hear of somebody share
- 18:49about, you know, they that this guy played, you know,
- 18:53professional tennis and he hurt himself and then he is in, you
- 18:56know, he was trying to fill a God's asshole.
- 18:59You know, I don't have that experience.
- 19:00But you know who I do know? I know Jeff Hatch, and I'll put
- 19:02you in touch with him. That's it so cool, man, that
- 19:07yeah, yeah, we could talk about that for multiple episodes of
- 19:12those kind of experiences. And hopefully we'll get to a
- 19:14little bit towards the end. But I do want to say that, like
- 19:19I was lucky in that time when I had the spinal fusion and was
- 19:22forced into retirement, I was lucky in the sense that I was
- 19:25already in the NFL substance abuse program shock.
- 19:29And so the stipulations of that where I had to go see a
- 19:31psychiatrist once a week in Tampa.
- 19:33And it was this woman named Doctor Martha Brown.
- 19:35And she basically saw all the pro athletes in that area.
- 19:39And I would have to see her once a week and then get urine test.
- 19:43And now the urine test only tested for marijuana because
- 19:46that was all I had been positive for initially.
- 19:50So I could do everything else as long as I didn't smoke
- 19:53marijuana. And I would leave my apartment
- 19:56one time a week to go see her. That was it.
- 20:02And, you know, it got like, it was incredibly dark.
- 20:07That was the first time in my life that, like, I experienced
- 20:11like, moments of depression and like, sadness along the way,
- 20:14melancholy, all those things. But at this time in my life,
- 20:18that was the first time I felt what I would call that like soul
- 20:23sickness on a level that was, you know, I don't know if I can
- 20:27keep going kind of, you know, And I will say too, again, just
- 20:32to like shout out recovery. Like it's one of my favorite
- 20:35things about meeting other people in in sobriety and
- 20:37recovery is that we really don't have to say much to each other.
- 20:40If we look each other in the eyes, I can tell that, you know
- 20:44where that place is and you've been there and like you're not
- 20:48there now. And I love that piece of what we
- 20:51have, man. It's so special, dude.
- 20:54It's like they're just the best people I ever meet are the other
- 20:58people I meet in recovery? And that's no love lost for
- 21:00normies. There's some incredible people
- 21:01out there, but like, I just won't vibe with you the same as
- 21:04I do with somebody else who's been where I've been.
- 21:07I completely hear you and then and I, you know, reminded me of
- 21:11another thing that I've learned. You know, I feel like everything
- 21:14I've learned, everything I know that's worth, you know, the
- 21:17valuable to me. I've either learned in the last,
- 21:20you know, almost seven years or stuff that it was presented to
- 21:22me earlier, but I didn't. I rejected it or I
- 21:25misinterpreted it or I've, you know, discarded it or whatever
- 21:28it was. But.
- 21:30And, you know, and, you know, something I heard early and I
- 21:34love is, you know, that they say religion is for people who are
- 21:37afraid of going to hell, and spirituality is for people who
- 21:40have been to hell. I love it.
- 21:43And that's kind of. Yeah, exactly.
- 21:44I mean like that and I and yeah, I mean like I have so many
- 21:48normie friends and we can talk about other kind of deep stuff
- 21:52that maybe when I wasn't capable of talking about authentically
- 21:54before I got sober. And we have that.
- 21:56But like, but the real vibe, you know, is with the people who
- 21:59have been to hell, you know, and have come out of it.
- 22:02Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love the use authentically
- 22:07too. I'm like, I'm super.
- 22:09That's that's a very, very, very important thing to me living
- 22:13authentically. And, you know, I just think that
- 22:21I don't know it, it, it comes up a lot.
- 22:22And I notice for myself, I notice in this iteration of
- 22:27sobriety, because there was a relapse in my path.
- 22:32Doing the work on a much deeper level has enabled me to be
- 22:36comfortable being my authentic self out in the world.
- 22:39And what a difference that makes for other people, not just
- 22:43myself in the way I view and and go through walk through life.
- 22:47But like, you know, it's dude, it's as simple as like when I go
- 22:51to the bagel shop, when I'm checking out at the counter at
- 22:54the bagel shop and I asked the person working like, how's your
- 22:59day going? They can tell that I actually
- 23:02want to know how their day is going.
- 23:04Like you can see it. You can see their fate change.
- 23:08And like what a gift that is, man to be able to be, to be able
- 23:14to be useful in that way, just to provide some some real
- 23:18connection to people who I think may not get it enough is like,
- 23:23man love it. I hear you just reminded me of
- 23:26something I hadn't thought about in a while.
- 23:27And on that same on that note, you know, just asking success.
- 23:31People in general aren't used for people used to people
- 23:34genuinely ask them how they're doing and caring.
- 23:36And you're right. And, and to take that a step for
- 23:39one time, I was pretty, I was probably 2 years sober and I was
- 23:42at a, a chopped salad place and this young kid just completely
- 23:48screwed up my whole order over. I mean, he was just just total
- 23:52the botch, you know, and I was kind of, I will kind of let him
- 23:56have it, you know, And then I took my salad and went over and
- 23:59I'm like putting my little individual pepper and salt
- 24:02packets on it. And I'm, and the guy is standing
- 24:04over there kind of. And I was like, what's wrong
- 24:06with you? You know, And I just went over
- 24:08to the kid, but he's probably 16 or 17 years old.
- 24:11And I was like 43. And I, and I went up to him and
- 24:14went to, I wanted to talk to him again.
- 24:16And he was like, oh, my God, scared to talk to me.
- 24:18I was going to like, you know, berate him again.
- 24:20I said, hey, man, I just wanted to acknowledge I was really a
- 24:23jerk back there. And I'm really sorry.
- 24:26And I really hope it never happens again.
- 24:29If there's anything else I can do to make it right, please tell
- 24:31me. And the look on the guy's face
- 24:34was, it actually was probably more shocking than when I
- 24:37actually kind of yelled at him for messing up the order.
- 24:40But still. I mean, but The thing is, you
- 24:41know, that was hopefully good for him and it was certainly
- 24:44good for me, and I think it was good for the universe.
- 24:47I love that last little piece you added there.
- 24:48Good for the universe. I believe in that, man.
- 24:51I believe that energy put out is like what comes back and that,
- 24:54yeah, I think there's no question to me, man.
- 24:57He's got he'll he probably still remembers that.
- 25:00And like, especially in those formative years, you know, that
- 25:04I, yeah, it's, it's impossible to overstate the impact of
- 25:07things like that. And so let's see, I'm going to
- 25:12see her once a week. I end up overdosing, end up in
- 25:16Tampa General Hospital. Now, I had tried to detox myself
- 25:19previous times and I had grand Mal seizures and just tell you
- 25:22like the depths of my alcoholism and my capacity to like be
- 25:25dishonest about it or like unwilling to share that truth of
- 25:28myself. I had had grand Mal seizures.
- 25:31I ended up getting diagnosed epileptic being put on this drug
- 25:36called Depakote, having my license taken for six months and
- 25:41living that BS because I was too afraid to go.
- 25:44Actually he those seizures were result of me trying to detox and
- 25:49you know, I don't actually have epilepsy.
- 25:52No, I'll take this drug for like 5 years, not drive for six
- 25:56months, whatever it takes to like maintain the cover.
- 26:02So I, I'd overdose. I'm in the hospital, she comes
- 26:05and sees me and she's basically like, look, you've had seizures
- 26:07before. You need to get help, go to this
- 26:10place and detox for a couple weeks and then do whatever you
- 26:14want to do. And that's what ended up getting
- 26:17me on a plane to north Louisiana to go to treatment.
- 26:22And that's what really, I mean, again, that was, that was
- 26:25another, another piece of life that was like kind of luck of
- 26:29the draw transformative for me, right?
- 26:33I didn't know what treatment looked like.
- 26:35I thought it was going to be like 1 Flew Over the Cuckoo's
- 26:37Nest and everyone can wink gowns drooling on themselves.
- 26:41And, and I got to this place and I experienced what we had just
- 26:44talked about. I, I, there were people there
- 26:46like me. And it was the first time I'd
- 26:48ever been surrounded by people like me.
- 26:52And what a relief it was, man. It was, it was so powerful, you
- 26:57know, and I ended up sticking around, you know, and I got to
- 26:59that two week mark and I, the whole time I was there, I was
- 27:02telling everyone I was leaving after two weeks.
- 27:04And I got to the end of that two week mark.
- 27:05And this guy who had been there a couple weeks, he had just
- 27:08gotten his 30 day trip and he came to me and we'd become
- 27:11close. He had actually committed
- 27:13vehicular manslaughter under the influence of benzos and was, you
- 27:17know, in treatment before trial. So he knew he was going to
- 27:20prison for a long time. And he was like, look, I don't
- 27:23know what's happening, but if you just stick around a little
- 27:27bit longer because like something's starting to happen
- 27:29to me, that's different. And I think you like, you should
- 27:32try and see if you can get there.
- 27:34And I was like, that's. Amazing.
- 27:36OK. Like I didn't really have
- 27:38anything to go back to. I had an apartment in Tampa, but
- 27:40my career there was done. What the heck, you know, why
- 27:44not? And, and sure enough, I, I stuck
- 27:46around and got to that 30 days and, and there was no like
- 27:48drastic light bulb moment for me then or really ever in early
- 27:52sobriety, right? It was just that like at 30
- 27:54days, I did notice that I was starting to be capable of making
- 27:58eye contact with other human beings again.
- 28:01It was that base. Yeah, that's part.
- 28:03That's one of the promises, you know.
- 28:06You know, and I think about. Fear of people and of economic
- 28:09insecurity leaving us at that. That's that's what it's all
- 28:11about, being able to look, look the world in the eye.
- 28:13That's it. I love that you said that too,
- 28:16'cause I get really annoyed when people are in the rooms and they
- 28:18talk about the promises coming true and it's all material stuff
- 28:22and I'm like, no, dude, that's not what they're talking about,
- 28:24dude. You know?
- 28:27So, yeah, I stayed at that treatment center 104 days, moved
- 28:30into a halfway house there, all the things, got my first sober
- 28:34job. So I got my little job as a
- 28:36customer service associate at the Movie Gallery in Rayville,
- 28:38LA And so I always tell, like, new guys that they're giving me
- 28:44stuff about, like, taking a sober job and it's like beneath
- 28:46them or whatever that is. I'm like, dude, I was a left
- 28:48tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and then I was a
- 28:51service associate at the Movie Gallery in Rayville, LA, OK?
- 28:55That's awesome. Yeah, it was great and I loved
- 28:57it, man. I found I found like I really
- 29:01enjoyed people and I wanted to sell more discount movie cars
- 29:05than anybody working there. And if you wanted to ask me when
- 29:08in The Little Mermaid such and such happened, I wanted to know
- 29:11the answer. So I could tell you, you know,
- 29:13I, I, I just was like falling in love with being alive and being
- 29:16a part of again, working the steps with my sponsor, right,
- 29:20like doing the deal. And then they came and said,
- 29:24Hey, have you ever thought about doing business development in
- 29:27treatment? And I was like, I don't even
- 29:28know what that is. And that's what got me in the
- 29:31field, you know? God, so funny.
- 29:34It's so similar. I, you know, I went to treatment
- 29:37and I, I didn't, wasn't my idea. I didn't want to go, went to get
- 29:40people off my back and I for I said I was leaving tomorrow
- 29:45every day for like 5 days probably.
- 29:49And but I didn't really, you know, I didn't know it, but I
- 29:52was practicing one day at a time.
- 29:54Even then I didn't know it, but I, but I honestly, like, I got
- 29:57there. I got on my knees and I got
- 29:58there. Everybody was so nice and
- 30:00welcoming and I was like, OK, this isn't so bad.
- 30:02When I got to my room and saw my, you know, my roommate's bed
- 30:06that was 2 feet for mine with all his clothes stacked on it.
- 30:09And I got on my knees and wept and just said, God, what have
- 30:13you done to me? And then, then I moped around
- 30:15for five days saying, I'm leaving tomorrow, I'm leaving
- 30:17tomorrow, I'm leaving tomorrow. And then I was like, you know
- 30:20what, I'm not going to leave. What can I do to make this go by
- 30:23fast? There you go And like I think I
- 30:26had what happened to me? What happened to your benzo
- 30:28buddy in your treatment center is like, I just I mean, I
- 30:32started participating. I thought about being a kid in
- 30:34church. If I didn't pick up the hymnal
- 30:35and sing and just stood there blankly staring at the head to
- 30:39hope to sit down again. It went by super slowly.
- 30:41But if I participated and sang along and went by like that, I
- 30:45just applied that and dude, I heard what I needed to hear,
- 30:48which was my way of doing things.
- 30:49Got me half a room at that treatment center.
- 30:51And you know that I, you know, started to feel better.
- 30:55And it started going by fast. But most importantly, I just
- 30:57like my, I had had a spiritual experience.
- 31:00Get out of the shower one day. I felt a voice, felt it didn't
- 31:03hear it felt a voice tell me I was going to be successful.
- 31:06And I did not take that to be rich and famous that I was going
- 31:08to be all right. But it's the first time I felt
- 31:10like I was going to be OK in about 20 years, honestly, maybe
- 31:14even longer and just came out, I came out on fire for it and I'm
- 31:20fired for recovery, but not this job.
- 31:22I, and the reason that I'm even bringing this up is because you
- 31:26said, you know, what is that about business development?
- 31:29And I, I came out and went back to work in sales for a couple
- 31:32years. And, but I do, you know, I've
- 31:34been in treatment for a month and there were doctors and
- 31:37nurses and counselors and techs and cooks and maintenance people
- 31:41that I'd never occurred to me that there was this job that had
- 31:45to happen where people needed to go make the world aware that
- 31:48these places exist. And all, and maybe equally as
- 31:52important, going and seeing other ones to make sure that
- 31:55they're good enough to, to refer to, you know, and know what
- 31:59other people are doing. And so like I just, I, I
- 32:03literally never, never occurred to me.
- 32:04This was a job. And all of a sudden I was
- 32:05presented with an opportunity to work in the field.
- 32:07And I just kind of took a little bit of a leap of faith.
- 32:10I was like, you know, I'm, I love talking about recovery and
- 32:12I do have a sales background. I like talking to people and
- 32:14traveling, and here we are. You know, it's awesome, It's
- 32:18crazy, it's awesome. It's a it, yeah, it is crazy.
- 32:21And it's, it's so neat. And yeah, I mean, I love, I find
- 32:26that right? Like I find a lot of times for
- 32:28whatever reason, the, the deeper connections I make with people
- 32:33end up, we end up having like these incredible similarities in
- 32:36our, in our journeys in our past, right?
- 32:38Like, you know, I'm listening to you talk and I'm like, yeah,
- 32:42this guy, you're a genuine human being, right?
- 32:46And like that to me, I notice my capacity to be honest with
- 32:51myself and others presents me with an opportunity to be more
- 32:53authentic version of myself. And as a result, I'm then
- 32:56connected to other people that are the same.
- 32:59And, and I love that man, you know, So kudos.
- 33:01I'm so glad you found your way into the space, man.
- 33:04Well, you too, man, and I remember meeting you that day in
- 33:06Atlanta and then I've I've you know what time I heard you, but
- 33:09I'm so glad to have been reconnected with you in Seattle.
- 33:11So cool. And now you're working with, you
- 33:13know, you're I think you're the you'll be the first person on
- 33:16our podcast. We've done like, I don't know if
- 33:19like we're probably at 160. You know, we've done one a week
- 33:22for 2 1/2 years basically who are from the same organization,
- 33:27you and Andrew who was on here recently.
- 33:30And those guys are great. And you know, it's, it also
- 33:32helps to work for great places, you know, that I feel great
- 33:36talking about and, you know, bringing people to see and
- 33:40bringing people into treatment and all that.
- 33:42That certainly, certainly helps. I wanted to ask you one thing,
- 33:45though, in my cursory research. And again, I didn't want to talk
- 33:48too much before and I didn't want to do too much research,
- 33:50but I see that you're also an artist.
- 33:53Will you tell us about that? Yeah, Yeah.
- 33:56You know, I think I, I took a painting class.
- 33:59I'm always interested. I was always interested in like
- 34:02in the arts, so to speak. I don't know why.
- 34:05I was just drawn to it from from an early age.
- 34:08And I remember I was a junior in high school and I took my first
- 34:11painting class and we had to pick like an old masters
- 34:15painting and copy it. And I picked this painting by
- 34:18Francisco de Goya called Saturn Devouring His Son.
- 34:22It's this incredible painting, really.
- 34:24I would suggest everyone look it up.
- 34:26I mean, it's pretty. It's a gigantic Saturn, you
- 34:30know, God biting the head off his kid, which is pretty dark,
- 34:38fair. But it's a beautiful piece of
- 34:39work. And so in doing that, I started
- 34:42to like dig a little further into that space and really fell
- 34:48in love with modern American art from like 1940 to like 1970.
- 34:54So you're talking like abstract expressionism.
- 34:57That's like Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko,
- 35:00Ellsworth Kelly, like Clifford. Still, these are the artists
- 35:04that I, I love. And that that era, right?
- 35:05It was the first real American painting that existed was that
- 35:11time. And I just got drawn to it.
- 35:13And then then I started making work and really just behind the
- 35:19scenes, right? Like I would just paint stuff
- 35:20because I liked it. And when I was down in Louisiana
- 35:25after I'd gotten sober, I didn't know if I'd ever be able to
- 35:28like, make art again sober. And I bought this house and I
- 35:32had like a, like a, an outbuilding behind it.
- 35:35And I turned that into a studio and I started painting again.
- 35:38And then I started showing. And it was the first time I'd
- 35:40ever really shown. And that was a cool experience
- 35:47and just kept on from there really.
- 35:50You know, I still do. I, I, I kind of am a little fazy
- 35:52with it. I really, I do it because I love
- 35:54it. But like, right now I've got
- 35:56probably like 15-5 foot by 6 foot canvases that I've painted
- 36:02in the outbuilding behind my house here that like, I need to
- 36:05move, you know, but it's cool though, man.
- 36:07Like I, I have a few hanging in like different treatment
- 36:09facility around Poland. I sell them here and there.
- 36:13I I again, I make it because I love it and it's a meditation.
- 36:21Yeah, I mean that that's so cool.
- 36:23I I'm certainly I'm not or I have no talent in the painting
- 36:27department. But what I will say is I, I love
- 36:30that you, you know, you're like, am I going to be able to do this
- 36:32sober? It's like another one of those
- 36:35myths were like, how am I possibly going to be able to do
- 36:37anything creative sober? It's such a illusion, you know,
- 36:40I mean, I was afraid of doing anything sober.
- 36:43And of course, you know, I've done all the stuff I was afraid
- 36:45I wouldn't be able to do sober. I've done all.
- 36:47It's always better. But, you know, I, I discovered
- 36:50this thing in early recovery called The Artist's Way, which
- 36:55is written by a woman named Julia Cameron.
- 36:57You know about that and it's like a she's a 12 step person
- 36:59open about it and it's 12 chapters and to re you know,
- 37:02reignite our inner artists. And I've I've gone I've gone
- 37:05through that twice and you know, I again, no talent, but I was it
- 37:09was one of those things. I was just kind of willing to do
- 37:10it. You know, I mean I did I was I
- 37:12did write a little professionally in my early
- 37:14career days and all that. And so I just don't ever want to
- 37:16totally lose that. And like, you know, it's but
- 37:19just the reason I the myth that we can't do this stuff, that
- 37:23we're not creative unless we're drunk or high, is ridiculous.
- 37:27It is, it is and and really like take it to even like the the
- 37:31acting world, right, Like, you know, I got to have some
- 37:35experience there and and I noticed like there's a lot of
- 37:39like very well known Tom Hardy, you know, Yep, guy got sober in
- 37:44the midst of his acting career. Fear of I'm not going to be able
- 37:47to do this without, you know, great.
- 37:50Bradley Cooper. I mean, you know, Robert, Johnny
- 37:52Junior. Oh, the list goes, goes on and
- 37:54on and on and on. But, yeah, I think you're so
- 37:56right. Like, yeah, that walking through
- 37:58that fear of, you know, I think when you're off, that when
- 38:02you're sober, you're more in line with who you really are.
- 38:07And if people don't like that, that can be a scary proposition.
- 38:11If I'm inebriated and I'm sending something out there.
- 38:14Yeah, I was drunk. Whatever.
- 38:15Not a big deal. Like it's just different.
- 38:17It hits a little deeper when it's really you.
- 38:19So I think that's probably a little part of it.
- 38:21But you're so right, I have not found any situation where I've
- 38:24tried to attempt to do anything in the creative space sober that
- 38:27has not been exponentially better than it was when I tried
- 38:29to do it under the I. Mean, I used to.
- 38:31I can't tell how many times I woke up, you know, it 2 in the
- 38:35afternoon or whatever with my laptop open, you know, with
- 38:39cigarette butts and drinks sitting around it and whatever
- 38:42else, you know, with, you know, like page one with just like
- 38:45nothing written after sitting there thinking that I was had
- 38:48the the cocktail just right to, you know, to spark my inner
- 38:51creative genius. And of course I just next thing
- 38:54I know, I'm like going through old photo albums and not doing
- 38:56anything but the the task I set out to do.
- 39:00What? So yeah, you mentioned that, you
- 39:02know, you the acting piece. What?
- 39:03Tell tell us more about that. Well, I got, I, I, I went to, I
- 39:09was living in Louisiana and I'd been sober about five years and
- 39:13I turned 30 and I was like, you know what, like, I think it's
- 39:16time to spread my wings a little bit.
- 39:19And I wanted to go back to Graduate School.
- 39:21I wanted to go get my, my MBA. And so I got into Loyola
- 39:26Marymount out in Los Angeles and moved out to Venice Beach.
- 39:30And at the same time, I had always been really curious.
- 39:34I just for the sake of like my own curiosity, I wanted to take
- 39:39an acting class and just see what, what it was like.
- 39:42And you know what, man, I wasn't, I was five years sober.
- 39:45I felt pretty confident in who I was.
- 39:46I was like, I'm not scared to go in here and fall on my face,
- 39:48right? Like, so whatever happens,
- 39:50happens. So I'm going to grad school and
- 39:54I'm taking this Meisner acting class, which is one of the main
- 39:57like acting schools. And after about a year and a
- 40:03half. My teacher was like, you know,
- 40:05you really need to like, put a profile up on one of these free
- 40:08websites and start auditioning. Like, it's time, you know, it's
- 40:12like, OK, so of course I put a picture of me in my Giants
- 40:17jersey up there, and I got called in to an audition for a
- 40:21Disney show. It was a show on Disney XD,
- 40:25which was like the Disney Team Channel and it was called I'm in
- 40:28the Band. And the episode I was
- 40:31auditioning for, there was 4 adult members of this band.
- 40:34And like the kid, you know, the, the Disney connection was the
- 40:37kid who was like the singer. And this episode was going to
- 40:41have four giant versions of the band members and four miniature
- 40:46versions of the band members. And we're all going to fight
- 40:48each other. And so I was auditioning to be
- 40:52one of the giant members and I got I, I, I booked it.
- 40:57And so that got me into the Screen Actors Guild and got my
- 41:02first experience really doing anything on camera in, in a big
- 41:08way, you know, and I was really lucky, right?
- 41:11You know, there's people that are out there trying to get in
- 41:12SAG for years. I just was really, really lucky.
- 41:17And I was also lucky in the sense that the guys I worked
- 41:19with that were the other three giant members of the band were
- 41:23really experienced stuntmen and actors.
- 41:26And what you find is guys my size, typically you need to be
- 41:29able to do stunts as well because there's just not a ton
- 41:33of work. You know, you can always be a
- 41:37big guy who goes, duh, in the background, right?
- 41:39They just play the tropes, you know, unless you're Vin Diesel,
- 41:44the Rock like, which, you know, I am not those people.
- 41:47So these guys, though, one of them was the motion capture guy
- 41:51for the Hulk. The other one was the 610 guy
- 41:55who's in Mensa named Dave Maddie, who's like, he's been a
- 41:59bodyguard in like every TV show you've ever seen.
- 42:03And they, they were great guys. And they, they started
- 42:05introducing me to people and, and you know, it's relationship
- 42:07building. It's like anything in life,
- 42:08right? Like you meet good people and
- 42:10you, you try to show up as a good human being and they send
- 42:13you in the right directions. And so that kind of got me into
- 42:16that world and I did some commercials, did some TV and
- 42:22movie stuff. And, and really what happened
- 42:24was I, I, I was doing stunts more than anything else.
- 42:28And I injured my knee, and it was getting really bad to the
- 42:33point where, you know, when you're in pain and it goes from
- 42:37being like, uncomfortable to being almost like a spiritual
- 42:41injury where it's like, I was waking up tired because of how
- 42:45much physical pain I was in. And I was just like, man, I'm
- 42:49going to take an opiate if I don't do something about this.
- 42:52And so I went and saw a doctor, and they were like, you need to
- 42:54get a total knee replacement in your right knee at 35, you know.
- 42:59Oof. And so I went back to Maryland,
- 43:03where I was born and raised to get that surgery.
- 43:06Luckily, if you're a vested veteran in the NFL, will pay for
- 43:09hip and knee replacements because they're so confident for
- 43:12guys. Yeah, So I reached into, I
- 43:16reached into that resource and got it covered and went back to
- 43:19Maryland to have it done. Now, I tell you this like, and I
- 43:22always, I always put this caveat in front of it when I tell
- 43:24people too. It's like if I was on this
- 43:27podcast like 3 years ago, I probably would have told you
- 43:31that like I did everything I could to set myself up to not
- 43:35have any issues around the surgery.
- 43:39But in reality, I today looking at it, I don't think that's
- 43:42true. I think that in my depths of my
- 43:46spirit, I thought I had a free one and that I could, you know,
- 43:50use around that surgery with impunity and come back and not
- 43:57have to give you guys a new date and everything would be fine.
- 44:02And it just wasn't, you know. You know, I woke up from that
- 44:06surgery and I clicked the button and it was like that monster
- 44:11reawoke, you know, like, I mean, it was crazy how fast it just
- 44:17was like there. And that started my relapse and
- 44:22dude, that went for about four years.
- 44:26You know, I don't burn it down quick, right?
- 44:28Like I'm a guy who will like hold it together pretty well.
- 44:32And that's probably to my detriment in the sense that if
- 44:34I'm not, it takes a while for people to realize, you know, so,
- 44:39so it's like one of these things I put in like 1 of my fail safes
- 44:42today is like maintaining absolutely transparent, honest
- 44:45communication with my sponsor in this inner circle of dudes in my
- 44:48life. So that, you know, they're,
- 44:51they're, they're aware enough of any changes that come because I
- 44:56just know myself, you know, So that relapse was what, what end
- 45:02up happening was I, I got a job offer to work for a treatment
- 45:04operation up in New Hampshire, just because I had built a bunch
- 45:08of relationships the first time around in the field and knew a
- 45:10lot of people and people knew I was back in Maryland.
- 45:14And, you know, I was kind of at this thing where I was like,
- 45:16look, I can go back and try to keep doing this stunt and acting
- 45:19stuff, but I got a spinal fusion now I've got a total knee
- 45:21replacement. Like I need to kind of take it
- 45:24easy on my body. And like, I enjoyed my time
- 45:26working in treatment. So let's just do that.
- 45:29And I really, I was, I just justified it.
- 45:32I justified the relapse in the sense that I, I got put on those
- 45:35fentanyl. Patches and I just told myself,
- 45:38look, man, like I played in the NFLI, did stunts like I've got a
- 45:43fake knee, I've got a spinal fusion, all these injuries and
- 45:47stuff. I've chronic pain.
- 45:48I'm doing it as it's prescribed. You know, no one's going to
- 45:52really understand what my lived experience is and what what my
- 45:55body feels like. And so I'm not going to tell
- 45:57them because they don't need to know.
- 46:00And then of course, I throw on like the, the utmost
- 46:03ridiculousness of like the Margaret and piece where I'm
- 46:06like, Oh, I'm doing this so that I'm able to be helpful to people
- 46:12in the world, right? Like, just like make make sure
- 46:15the sword I fall on is as big as possible, right?
- 46:17It's like ridiculous. And so that's how it went.
- 46:20And, and you know, after a couple years, I remember I was
- 46:23like, I was driving back and forth.
- 46:26I was up in New Hampshire and I was driving back to Maryland
- 46:29once a month to fill my prescription.
- 46:32And it was a 16 hour round trip. And after a couple years, man, I
- 46:35was just tired of doing it. And I just remember being like,
- 46:38look, I can probably get some heroin really easily and it'll
- 46:41do the same exact thing. And so that's what I did.
- 46:45I walked out of my apartment, walked to the park across the
- 46:48street, Ask somebody, Yep, I know someone.
- 46:51Get introduced to a dealer and then, you know, what happens is
- 46:55then I'm spending all my money in short order on heroin while
- 47:03I'm sitting on prevention, treatment and recovery panels
- 47:06with the governor and the DEA. And it's like you said earlier
- 47:13in our conversation where you talk about the more dirt you
- 47:15have to pour on to like keep the lie going because it's so you
- 47:20feel so fraudulent. And I just remember not being
- 47:24sober for a moment of my existence in that time, you
- 47:27know, I just, I just stayed, stayed high, you know, and you
- 47:34know, when I'm spending all my money at the dope dealers, I
- 47:36finally went to him and, and I said, look, I can't afford it.
- 47:38He said, well, look, if you'll drive four eggs down the highway
- 47:41and pick up my load and bring it back to me, I'll give you your
- 47:45personal use amount for free. Makes perfect sense.
- 47:50And now I'm I'm mewling for an operation.
- 47:54And so it went like that for a while until it didn't, and then
- 47:59it all blew up. And that was like a big
- 48:03reckoning for me. And I can tell you about that if
- 48:09you want to hear about it. Absolutely, man.
- 48:11OK, cool. I appreciate you sharing it man.
- 48:14Oh, yeah, there's. Yeah, that's the thing, man,
- 48:16right. Like, I mean, I'll tell you,
- 48:18man, that the experience of my relapse was such that.
- 48:21So what ends up happening is that guy, the guy I was driving
- 48:24for got arrested and I, I had brought a load back for him.
- 48:30He picked it up. About 30 minutes later, I got a
- 48:31phone call. He's gotten arrested.
- 48:33You need to get out of your apartment.
- 48:35I leave, I go hide out and for the next month and a half, I'm
- 48:38trying to figure out how to live and, and just like, I don't know
- 48:44if I even slept in that time, right?
- 48:46I'm waiting for the shoe to drop Now.
- 48:47I'm like recognizing the fact that like, holy cow, this is
- 48:52like for real serious. And it was September 17th of
- 48:582017 where we had come back from the Cape Cod Symposium.
- 49:03And I just kind of popped and was like, I have to get, I need
- 49:06some dope. So I drove down to Lawrence, MA,
- 49:11which I knew was like a heroin hotbed, parked the car, went to
- 49:15the first guys I met on a stoop, bought 2 fingers, which is 20
- 49:20grams of heroin. They come a little 10 finger
- 49:22roll, 1010 oz or 10 gram rolls that look like a finger, right?
- 49:25So I bought two of those. I drive back across the border
- 49:30and there's an unmarked in the middle of the highway.
- 49:32And I was like, that's strange, what's that guy doing there?
- 49:36So I got off the highway and started trying to like take the
- 49:39back Rd. home and the next thing I know there's two state
- 49:43troopers behind me with their lights on.
- 49:44They pull me over and so I swallow one of those 10 gram
- 49:51fingers and of course like any good drug addict, I leave the
- 49:55other one in the center console. They Get Me Out of the car, they
- 49:59find it and right about then that unmarked car pulls up and
- 50:03they say, Mr. Hatch, we know everything you've been involved
- 50:05in and we think you should come talk to us.
- 50:09And like, that's never a fun experience, right?
- 50:11And so I get driven to some kind of like secret barracks and I
- 50:16walk in this room and there's like 8 detectives at this table
- 50:19and they start asking me questions.
- 50:20And basically what they let me know was that another one of the
- 50:23mules, another driver, had been flipped like four months prior.
- 50:27They've been following everyone. They knew everything that was
- 50:30going on. They had caught the guy that I
- 50:32was close to, but they wanted the guy above him.
- 50:36And they're like, if you cooperate and try to help us,
- 50:38we'll prosecute, right? And I'm like, at that time, dude
- 50:42number one, I didn't really know that guy and #2 I'm trying to
- 50:46save my skin, you know? So I was like, whatever you
- 50:49want. And right about then that 10g
- 50:54finger starts melting in my belly and I end up like
- 50:58basically falling out at the table pretty much.
- 51:01And so they realize that I'm of no use anymore at this moment.
- 51:04And they drive me home. You know, they put me in a squad
- 51:08car. Somebody got behind this
- 51:09driving, drove my car, parked it in my spot at my apartment
- 51:12building, walked me up to my apartment.
- 51:14And we're like, we'll see you tomorrow.
- 51:17And I know it's so weird. I woke up September 18th of
- 51:242017, which is my sobriety date, to a knock at the door.
- 51:30And it was the DEA, the FBI and the New Hampshire State Police.
- 51:35And things got so real so fast, you know?
- 51:42And by the end of that meeting, they were leaving and saying,
- 51:44look, you're now with us and you don't change anything in your
- 51:47life. You don't tell anybody what's
- 51:50happening and you don't drink and you don't drug.
- 51:53Any of those three things trigger immediate arrest.
- 51:55And, like, we'll be in touch. And they left.
- 52:00And there I was, man, by myself in my apartment, no longer under
- 52:08the influence and like swallowing the fact that I am
- 52:11now under the thumb of the feds. And nobody knows.
- 52:21And, you know, the first time I'd ever felt like that real
- 52:25depth of pain and loneliness and darkness was before I went to
- 52:28treatment. The first time.
- 52:31This was the second time. And this was, this was, I was
- 52:39really at the edge, man. I mean, you know, it got to the
- 52:42point and I don't want to, I hope this doesn't trigger
- 52:46anyone, but you know, like I had written the note and I had the,
- 52:49the box cutter under the sink in the bathroom and I knew what,
- 52:51where I was going to sit and like, I had it lined out because
- 52:55it was just like too much dude. I could not see, I couldn't even
- 53:00see a tunnel, let alone a light at the end of any tunnel.
- 53:05It was just, there's no way through this.
- 53:09But I also had had some experience and sobriety and
- 53:12like, I knew that I had found some freedom from the bondage
- 53:17itself through the 11th step, through prayer and meditation.
- 53:23And I knew I couldn't tell anyone what was going on.
- 53:25But I also knew that maybe I could find some space within
- 53:29myself that would provide me some relief from that bondage,
- 53:34you know, And so I think I, I dug into those practices in a
- 53:39deeper way than I ever had in my life in the hopes that I would
- 53:43find something. And you know, man, I'm so
- 53:47grateful to tell you that I did. You know, I, I can't tell you
- 53:52exactly when it happened, but in, in, you know, in time, over
- 53:56some months there, things shifted for me in the sense that
- 54:05I was capable of walking in this really utter chaos, dude, like
- 54:10my life was, you know, I'm I'm it's, it was a real double life.
- 54:17I was living at that point, but I had found something, some
- 54:21connection to source, right, something that put me in a place
- 54:25where it was like, no matter what happens, dude, on this in
- 54:29this material world, no matter what happens to me third
- 54:31dimensionally, it cannot touch what exists between me and the
- 54:34God of my understanding. And like, I found that there,
- 54:39you know, and it, it changed my life.
- 54:42It really did, because it enabled me to keep living in the
- 54:45midst of that. And I'll tell you what ends up
- 54:48happening, which is even crazier, is for whatever reason,
- 54:52this is, it was 2019 now. So we've been in this situation
- 54:55for almost 2 years. It's July of 2019.
- 55:01And for whatever reason, this is in Trump's first term.
- 55:03Mike Pence decides he's going to come speak at the treatment
- 55:06center that I work at. So that's a big deal.
- 55:10And so the Secret Service comes the week before to vet everyone
- 55:13who's going to be there because the vice president's coming.
- 55:17And I'm like, it's over. But I end up skirting it for
- 55:22some reason. They didn't find anything.
- 55:23I think it was because I was still an active member of some
- 55:26investigation that I wasn't in the system necessarily.
- 55:30And the morning of the event, everyone's there, all the
- 55:36dignitaries and blah, blah, blah.
- 55:38And about 30 minutes before he's supposed to show up, they come
- 55:41out on the stage and they say we're so sorry the vice
- 55:44president's had to cancel his trip.
- 55:46And we thank you all for coming and we'll see you later.
- 55:51And of course, I'm like this egotistical alcoholic who's 100%
- 55:55convinced right away that like this is my fault, it's because
- 55:58of me and what's going on with me, right?
- 56:00And so I call, I had an attorney at that point and an attorney
- 56:03that I only got because the detective for the state police
- 56:07who had led the investigation into me became my closest
- 56:13confidant. This is a guy who came to me
- 56:16about a month into us being connected and said, look, man,
- 56:21when I met you at when I started to like coming at you, I thought
- 56:26you were the biggest piece of crap that I'd ever seen living.
- 56:30But in the month that I've now known you, like I've gotten to
- 56:33know you, you've explained this kind of disease model piece to
- 56:36me because none of them had ever heard it, which I was completely
- 56:39shocked. The DEA had never heard of the
- 56:40disease model of addiction. That seems a little weird.
- 56:43But this guy became my closest confidant.
- 56:46And about six months in, he said, you know, you need to get
- 56:48an attorney. And so I got an attorney.
- 56:51And so I called that attorney and I said, hey, Chuck, he goes,
- 56:53there's no way it's because of you.
- 56:54And then I called that detective and I said, you know, Steve,
- 56:58what's up? He goes, there's no way.
- 56:59I said, OK, fine. Like whatever it was, we'll find
- 57:01out. And it got some traction because
- 57:04I guess it's rare for that to happen, that they cancel an
- 57:07appearance like that. So they kind of asked Trump, and
- 57:10we'll tell you in a couple weeks and this and that.
- 57:13And they were kind of coded in their language.
- 57:14And sure enough, 2 weeks later, I got charged officially.
- 57:20It was because of me. The DEA guy had called Air Force
- 57:232 and said, you cannot come speak here.
- 57:25We're about to charge this guy with trafficking.
- 57:27He'll be a really bad look. And so when I got charged, it
- 57:34became public information. It was like very public, you
- 57:39know, Now the, the weird thing for me was I was almost two
- 57:44years sober again when everyone found out.
- 57:48And so I didn't really, I had been facing the internal
- 57:51consequences for a long time, but the worldly consequences
- 57:55came then, you know, my attorney's office called, they
- 58:00said they're filing a charge. They're going to charge you with
- 58:01using a phone in Commission of a drug crime.
- 58:05It's a federal felony. It's up to four years.
- 58:09And now like you're, you can talk about it now because it's
- 58:12public, you know? So I pulled my boss in at the
- 58:15time and told him and we cried. And then I went home and I sat
- 58:21down on the couch with the girl I've been dating for a year and
- 58:25a half who knew nothing about any of this and said, Hey, need
- 58:32to tell you something. And you know, I, I, well, I'll
- 58:40shout her out now. She's now my what?
- 58:42PS She's now my wife and we have our first baby coming at the end
- 58:45of August. Oh my God, you know, but she
- 58:49stood with me through that man. And it was a really powerful
- 58:52thing that I didn't realize in the midst of her saying that she
- 58:54would stay how how much I would need it.
- 58:57But you know, she's a woman in long term recovery.
- 59:00She had never known me as the guy who would behave that way.
- 59:03We, I was sober again when we met and she leaned into those
- 59:07pieces of, of the guy that I was then.
- 59:09And like, I think her being a sober woman and stayed with me
- 59:14and dude, I'll tell you what, man, that created a bond and
- 59:17like a tightness between she and I that is just like, dude, I,
- 59:21you know, I think a lot of us when we feel genuine love for
- 59:25another human being and we get in a long term relationship with
- 59:28them, we'd say we'd like do anything for that person.
- 59:32Dude, I would I would do anything for her.
- 59:36I mean, she is my teammate. And so when I got when I, when
- 59:42it became public, I, I got fired from my job.
- 59:44So I lost my company car, lost my company phone.
- 59:47It did not end up in the New Hampshire paper like I thought
- 59:50it ended up on CNN. There was an article in the New
- 59:53York Times, There was an article in the Washington Post.
- 59:59You know, there ended up being a 12 page story in Sports
- 1:00:01Illustrated. Like I got torched nationally
- 1:00:07and I got a lot of hate from a lot of people.
- 1:00:10And I want to say this to you now without judgement or
- 1:00:15resentment, but I will tell you that, man, when I faced that
- 1:00:18situation, I had been a guy who had worked in the treatment
- 1:00:22field for a long time and I had never done anything unethical.
- 1:00:26I never patient and brokered. I never slept with a girl at a
- 1:00:29conference, right? Never did any of that stuff.
- 1:00:32And when I relapsed, I was, I was blacklisted by a large
- 1:00:41percentage of people that I knew in the field.
- 1:00:44And I, I only say that out loud to you now in the hopes that
- 1:00:47maybe if this happens to someone else in the future and they live
- 1:00:50through the experience, that we're capable of practicing what
- 1:00:54we preach in the sense of second chances and loving our own and
- 1:00:58things like that. Because I didn't experience
- 1:01:00that. Now I have to mitigate that by
- 1:01:02saying the way the story was presented, it almost looked as
- 1:01:06if I was like Pablo Escobar. I mean, it didn't say that I
- 1:01:09mulled for an operation to get my personal use amount.
- 1:01:11It was like, you know, it presented me as if I was, you
- 1:01:14know, dealing heroin to a bunch of people and then trying to
- 1:01:17like, sneak them into treatment and like all this stuff, you
- 1:01:20know, So I got a little bit of why people would have responded
- 1:01:24that way. But I would also say, like, do
- 1:01:26your own research because if anybody had called me, I would
- 1:01:29have told him exactly what had happened.
- 1:01:32And so when that happened, you know, I, I got a new sponsor
- 1:01:37because now I could talk about it.
- 1:01:38I went through the work again. I was walking to meetings, I was
- 1:01:43working at UPS filling 18 Wheelers.
- 1:01:45My girlfriend at the time would have to drive me there to my
- 1:01:49shift and pick me up. Her parents bought me a cell
- 1:01:52phone and I was at the bottom again.
- 1:02:02But it was, it was, it was, it was OK for me in the sense that
- 1:02:05I was experiencing this profound sense of relief and the fact
- 1:02:08that I wasn't carrying this ball and chain around lying about
- 1:02:11everything anymore like everyone knew.
- 1:02:13And that was that was freeing for me and doing the work.
- 1:02:16Again, thinking about that like 2 years of being under the thumb
- 1:02:21of the feds but being living a sober life and your only outlet
- 1:02:24was. Not that there's anything wrong
- 1:02:27with it, but, you know, with there's a reason Step 5 is to
- 1:02:30God, to ourselves and to another human being, you know, And then
- 1:02:33this case that just literally couldn't have one or else you
- 1:02:37could get. Yeah.
- 1:02:38And I would imagine that as awful as that whole thing was
- 1:02:41and going public, it did have to be.
- 1:02:43It had to have been liberating, as as awful as it was, instead
- 1:02:46of having to hold on to that secret.
- 1:02:48Absolutely, absolutely. You're absolutely right.
- 1:02:51And, and look, I will say this too, there were some people that
- 1:02:54I had known in the field who got close to, closer to me in that
- 1:02:59time. And like, I will name him now
- 1:03:02just because I think it's important to shout.
- 1:03:04I, I, I really treasure those people.
- 1:03:06One in particular is a guy named Tyson Stark.
- 1:03:10Tyson works in a program called Cumberland Heights.
- 1:03:12He now works for Circle Lodge. He lives in California now.
- 1:03:14And Tyson, I have been friends for a long time.
- 1:03:17And Tyson at the time was opening up a program in
- 1:03:19Savannah, GA. And he called me and he said,
- 1:03:22hey, man, I can't offer you much, but I know you and I can
- 1:03:27offer you a job as our weekend tech for 15 bucks an hour.
- 1:03:32And it'll get you guys out of New Hampshire and get you down
- 1:03:34to Savannah. And you guys can have like a
- 1:03:35fresh start. Wow.
- 1:03:40So we jumped at that. You know, I took it to Lauren
- 1:03:43and I said, what do you think? And she said, let's go.
- 1:03:45Until we moved from New Hampshire down to Savannah.
- 1:03:50And right about then is when the pandemic hit.
- 1:03:53Yeah, that's why I met you when you were with the place in
- 1:03:55Savannah, right? In Atlanta, right?
- 1:03:57And so, so the pandemic hits and my federal case gets put on ice.
- 1:04:03And so I'm basically now we're in Savannah, we're recreating a
- 1:04:07life there. And I'm kind of just waiting to
- 1:04:11find out what's going to happen. And man, I'll tell you, bro, it
- 1:04:15was 4 1/2 years before I finally got sentenced.
- 1:04:19And so I try to like, it's that piece of like gratitude and
- 1:04:23hindsight where I go. Like, you know, what I learned
- 1:04:26in that experience was like, there's 4 1/2 years where when I
- 1:04:29woke up and when I went to bed, the first and last thought was
- 1:04:32like, is tomorrow, the day is today or tomorrow, the day I
- 1:04:35find out I go to federal prison. I was like, legit, that was
- 1:04:39real. They were going to send me.
- 1:04:44And it forced a perspective on me of, like, maintaining
- 1:04:47presence. Yeah.
- 1:04:49I just had to look down at my feet and go, like, where am I
- 1:04:52right now? And how can I be useful and
- 1:04:55helpful in this day? One day at a time, right?
- 1:05:00Because I don't know what tomorrow's going to bring.
- 1:05:03Not not in some ethereal. Yeah, in reality.
- 1:05:08Really and truly, yeah. Tomorrow I could get the call
- 1:05:10that you are to report to federal prison, and I'm so
- 1:05:15grateful for that because it. What happened?
- 1:05:18It's how I live now. What happened with the case?
- 1:05:23I ended up getting sentenced. So what happens is I go before
- 1:05:27the judge. I felt really good going into
- 1:05:32it. And then he started talking and
- 1:05:35I went, Oh no. But what ended up happening was
- 1:05:39like my attorney did his thing. But you know, what happened was
- 1:05:41the DAS then actually like went to bat for me with the judge and
- 1:05:45they were like, look, this guy's been sober again for 4 1/2
- 1:05:48years. He was a mule.
- 1:05:50He wasn't, you know, there was never a dollar exchange to this
- 1:05:54guy in this process. He made a terrible mistake.
- 1:05:57But it was it was, it was around his disease.
- 1:05:59And you know they got it, man. Wow.
- 1:06:02And, and he, he went for it. So I got three years probation.
- 1:06:07And I'll tell you now that three years probation turned into a
- 1:06:10year and a half because they ended it early, because they
- 1:06:12knew I was not a risk, right? I wasn't you know, and so So
- 1:06:16what happens then after I get sentenced and we know I'm not
- 1:06:19going to prison is now like life can move forward for I had
- 1:06:23proposed by that point. So we were engaged and it's like
- 1:06:26life can move forward for us, right.
- 1:06:28We're no longer held hostage by this ongoing thing.
- 1:06:33And my wife very shortly was like, I want to move to the
- 1:06:36Pacific Northwest. And I said, whatever you want,
- 1:06:41like right, like I, yes, ma'am, we'll go.
- 1:06:45And so I made some calls to some people I knew and, and ended up
- 1:06:47getting an offer and we moved out to, to now where we live in
- 1:06:52Vancouver, WA. So it's just north of Portland,
- 1:06:55OR on the, on the Washington side.
- 1:06:57And we've been here for 2 1/2 years.
- 1:07:04You know, like I said, my probation a year and a half
- 1:07:06early. She and I got married October of
- 1:07:1023, got pregnant. Our first baby is due August
- 1:07:1524th of this year. Own a home.
- 1:07:18Like have this incredible job now with, with Eagle Creek
- 1:07:22Ranch. You know, I worked at Summit for
- 1:07:23a while, which was great. And I've taken this gig with
- 1:07:25with Andrew and Luke over there at Eagle Creek, which is so
- 1:07:28awesome. I just think the world of those
- 1:07:30guys and I love what they're doing and I'm ecstatic to be a
- 1:07:33part of it. So like life has gotten like
- 1:07:36really good for me third dimensionally, but like, dude, I
- 1:07:40never forget that. Like that doesn't have a thing
- 1:07:44to do with my sobriety. You know, it's a result of it.
- 1:07:48But my sobriety is based on the 4th dimensional connection to to
- 1:07:52my higher power and really to me believes like being useful and
- 1:07:56helpful, dude. And that looks like me, like
- 1:07:59sponsoring men, having a Home group, like actively engaging in
- 1:08:02my recovery process every day, the daily disciplines that are
- 1:08:05required of me, of being a sober man and like showing up in the
- 1:08:08world is my best self. And, and it's like a such a
- 1:08:11pleasure and I'm forever grateful because of what I've
- 1:08:14been through, you know? I mean, this is the best example
- 1:08:18of it being an inside job because you were by
- 1:08:24circumstances between you and God.
- 1:08:28And like, you know, I, I just that I, I can't take, I didn't
- 1:08:32know any, I didn't know about this.
- 1:08:34So this, I didn't know anything about any of this.
- 1:08:36So this has been absolutely incredible.
- 1:08:40Thanks man. I'm so, I'm so happy for you and
- 1:08:43I'm so happy for everybody in your orbit.
- 1:08:46And I consider myself in it. And I'm so happy for Luke and
- 1:08:50Andrew and, and Eagle Creek and our field and the recovery
- 1:08:54community and the world in general.
- 1:08:55Man, this is just glad. I'm glad you're here, man, Glad.
- 1:08:59And I hate it for you, but I'm glad you went through all that
- 1:09:01because it needed to happen, you know?
- 1:09:03Dude, that's it. Thank you so much for saying
- 1:09:06that. Like, I, I appreciate, I can
- 1:09:08tell that's genuine and that that really does mean a lot.
- 1:09:11And I really appreciate. And you're so right in the sense
- 1:09:13of like, we just never know what the other side of it looks like
- 1:09:19until we get there. And if you'd have told me the
- 1:09:24day those guys knocked at my door in 2017 that this is where
- 1:09:28I would be 7 1/2 years later, I would have said there's
- 1:09:33absolutely no, no way. But again, that's this gorgeous
- 1:09:37piece about this recovery process, right?
- 1:09:39It's like you show up, you do the next right thing.
- 1:09:42You practice the principles to the best of your ability and in
- 1:09:46miraculous things will happen. Man, I want to tell you a really
- 1:09:49quick story, really quick that that happened just to speak to
- 1:09:52the power of our tribe. We were in Savannah.
- 1:09:57We had a grocery store that we go to a Publix down there, you
- 1:10:00know, you have your regular grocery store, you know, where
- 1:10:02everything is, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 1:10:03We're in there all the time. And one thing that happens my
- 1:10:06wife and I go out is my wife is five one.
- 1:10:08I'm 6-7. So I get comments about how tall
- 1:10:11I am and like am IA wrestler. Do I play sports a lot anyways,
- 1:10:15which I'm always happy to like acquiesce and just be like, oh,
- 1:10:18I play squash or like, you know, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm a
- 1:10:22wicked racquetball player, whatever it looks like, you
- 1:10:24know, but when she's with me, it's even more so because I look
- 1:10:27that much taller. And there was this one guy who
- 1:10:30worked at this Publix in Savannah that really was riding
- 1:10:33me about what sport I played and all this.
- 1:10:36And one day finally, I kind of pinned me down and was like, I
- 1:10:40know you played football. And I said, yes, I did.
- 1:10:43He said, where'd you play? Well, I said I played at Severn
- 1:10:45School in Sorrento Park, Maryland.
- 1:10:47Did you play in college? Yes, I did.
- 1:10:49Where did you play? University of Pennsylvania.
- 1:10:51Did you play after college? I look at my wife.
- 1:10:55I'm like, she's I'll just tell him.
- 1:10:58And so I said, yes, I did. Who'd you play for?
- 1:11:01The Giants and the Bucks? What's your name?
- 1:11:05And I'm immediately like, I don't care about the football.
- 1:11:09I don't, I don't want this guy to Google me.
- 1:11:11Because if you Google me, dude, the 1st 10 stories that come up
- 1:11:14are about my case and about the behaviors.
- 1:11:18I was, you know, the things I was doing in the midst of that.
- 1:11:22And I don't want that to be, we have to find a new grocery
- 1:11:25store. I don't want everyone at the
- 1:11:26grocery store knowing I'm a heroin trafficker.
- 1:11:28It's uncomfortable. And I'm like all in this shame
- 1:11:31and like self, you know, bondage of self with this.
- 1:11:38And so we leave the grocery store and I'm feeling that.
- 1:11:42And I wake up the next morning, dude, and there's an e-mail in
- 1:11:45my inbox, my work e-mail. This guy had looked me up and he
- 1:11:50found my e-mail and he sent me an e-mail and he said, hey,
- 1:11:52Jeff, it's Mike from Publix. I want to let you know that I've
- 1:11:56been sober for 12 years, and I'm so grateful you made it back.
- 1:12:01And I'm so happy for you that you're still here.
- 1:12:05You know, it's like powerful. And real man.
- 1:12:10You know, it's like what would that's that's the thing.
- 1:12:14This thing shows up when I need it most, and it did there and
- 1:12:17it's done a countless time since, you know, So just super
- 1:12:20grateful, yeah. Well, that's an unbelievably
- 1:12:24perfect place to end it. So I can't even begin to thank
- 1:12:30you for this. So I just, I'm so again, just
- 1:12:34just happy to know you and, and thank you for being here.
- 1:12:37And before we do go, just quickly tell the listeners how
- 1:12:41to find you in Eagle. Creek, yeah.
- 1:12:43So you're going to look for Eagle Creek at Eagle Creek Ranch
- 1:12:46recovery.com please check it out amazing program 15 bed men only
- 1:12:53just really we. We love them.
- 1:12:56Awesome work. And as far as me, you can find
- 1:12:59me at hatch-coaching.com. That's my coaching website,
- 1:13:03which I'm doing too. And, and it kind of has all the
- 1:13:06stuff from from me on there. It's got my brand on there and
- 1:13:09all the other stuff. So hatch-coaching.com is where
- 1:13:12you can find me. Awesome.
- 1:13:15All right. Well, Jeff, thank you so much,
- 1:13:16Jeff Hatch, everybody. If you liked what you heard
- 1:13:19today or just want to know more, give us a call on 9196708119 or
- 1:13:25visit us at newwatersrecovery.com.
- 1:13:28Thank you.