19: Using football as a tool for hope and sharing one legend’s story

One man’s fame, success, and glory—and the story behind it all<br /><br />This week’s guest is one my closest friends in the entire world—someone you might not expect but a person who has made one of the biggest impacts on my life. He was my model for navigating sobriety in the public eye and someone whom I immediately felt I knew and felt safe with—his name is Tony Mandarich.<br /><br />In this episode we dive into the story behind the glory and talk about Tony’s upbringing, his climb in athleticism and fame, playing football in college, to finally being drafted to the NFL. He opens up about his addictions and the three pivotal events that brought everything crashing down. <br />Listen to this episode to hear how resilience, perseverance, and being fed up led one man to turn his life around from addiction and commit to a different kind of success and lifestyle—sobriety.<br /><br />Listen to this episode now<br /><br />More than just football<br /><br />Tony’s story is much more than just football. He starts by sharing his family background, how they escaped communism and immigrated from Croatia to a small town in Canada. As a young kid, Tony vividly remembers being 11 years old and writing down his dreams of one day playing in the NFL. <br /><br />When Tony turned 16, he realized he could not be scouted in Canada. He shares his brothers sacrifice to move him down to the States, and how that move was the beginning of everything. However, the fame, the success, the glory—Tony’s story is behind it all. For him, football is the platform and tool to carry his greater message. <br /><br />Addiction to “I’m done”<br /><br />He shares the moments and thoughts that led up to the first time he injected steroids, the psychological effects that are ten times more extreme than the physical ones, the three tragic events that spiraled him to his breaking point, and the specific events that led to him getting sober from alcohol and painkillers. <br /><br />Although Tony isn’t proud of some of his past, he has changed his virtue