New Falcons offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian has resurrected a career that not long ago was derailed by alcoholism. As he moves forward in football, he refuses to be defined by the disease.
“Everybody has issues that they have to deal with -- some physical, some mental,” Sarkisian told Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com. “This happens to be an issue of mine that I work on daily. That is important to me so I can be the best person I can be, the best father I can be, the best coach I can be. And I’m diligent in that.”
It’s an admirable response from Sarkisian, who has a medical condition that, unfortunately, is often stigmatized or viewed as not a “real” disease. It’s incredibly real, and it will be important for Sarkisian to be even more diligent now that he has taken a job at a level of football where binge drinking occurs on a regular basis among coaches and scouts.
Not among all coaches and scouts, but among enough of them that the culture has developed a reputation for heavy drinking. Whether it’s a tool for dealing with the extreme stress and demands of the job or an extension of a frat-boy mentality that is tied to the testosterone-fueled sport to which they’re tied or a combination of those and other factors, alcohol is prevalent when coaches and scouts get together -- and that could make it difficult for Sarkisian to fully and completely “fit in” with his peers.
“This isn’t something that is necessarily in my past,” Sarkisian told McClure. “It is something that I have to work on every single day, that I do work on every single day because it is important to me. It’s important to who I am as a person. . . . The disease of alcoholism is a piece of me. It doesn’t define me.”
We wish Sarkisian the best, in part because he can be an inspiration for those who suffer with alcoholism, nudging them to get help and prodding them to stay strong each and every day in the never-ending quest to refrain from a substance that turns lives upside down on a daily basis.