I Went From The MVP Quarterback to Shooting Heroin | How I Found Sobriety and Changed My Life

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning · Jun 27, 2026 · 1h 26m

Tommy Lyons grew up between Brooklyn and Staten Island, a fearful, introverted kid with a nervous disposition who found that drugs made him feel like he could finally talk to anyone. He was smoking weed at ten, doing Xanax by thirteen, and a borderline cocaine addict by fourteen — funding it by stealing and robbing before he was even old enough to drive.

He became the MVP quarterback of his high school football team while already deep in opiate addiction. Vicodin became Percocet, Percocet became blues, and blues became heroin. He describes shooting heroin in the bathroom at his serving job in…