More than 15 years ago, Hall of Fame Jets quarterback Joe Namath made a drunken pass at ESPN’s Suzy Kolber on live TV during a game involving his former team. Namath claims in a new autobiography that he hasn’t had a drink since that night.
“I saw it as a blessing in disguise,” Namath writes, via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com. “I had embarrassed my friends and family and could not escape that feeling. I haven’t had a drink since.”
Namath called alcohol “Slick,” and he has spent years resisting him.
“Every now and then Slick whispers, but having a name for him makes me listen to him differently,” Namath writes. “And, health-wise, I’d probably be dead by now if I hadn’t stopped drinking.”
Namath began drinking in his 20s, and he eventually overcame it.
“The drinking was what would kick my butt for a long time,” Namath writes. “I believe any of us can be brought to our knees whether from physical or emotional pain. Over the years, I learned how fragile we humans can be. Emotionally, I used that as an excuse to start drinking again. . . . I would drink all day sometimes.”
Others who struggle with addiction should use Namath’s example as an inspiration that sobriety can be achieved, and sustained.