Football star: from Crack to ministry

One early evening in Long Beach in the mid-1980’s, back when he was in the throes of a wicked addiction to crack cocaine, former Pro Bowl linebacker Isiah Robertson says he found himself staring into the barrel of a shotgun. Jerry Crowe writes his story in the Los Angeles Times.

“The weapon was locked, loaded and ready to do him harm, he says, and the drug dealer pointing it at him already had administered a near-fatal beating that left the 1971 NFL defensive rookie of the year and former Los Angeles Ram bleeding from a head wound that would require 100 stiches to close. Thirteen of his teeth lay broken in his mouth.

Life had been great. The bright lights and beautiful women of California. I partied like a rock star. It was like a dream. Overwhelming. You meet one beautiful woman and the next day you meet a woman two times more beautiful than her and the next day you meet one three times more beautiful. Man, I went crazy. There was one time after football was over that I was strung out for 31 days, costing me 25 grand.

After his wife kicked him out he stopped cold turkey, but didn’t treat the disease. It was all willpower. The first time somebody ticked me off, I went looking for a high and found it. I started smoking two and three thousand dollars of cocaine a week.
His addiction had cost him his family, his businesss, his cars and 14 homes. The encounter with the drug dealer was his wake-up call – his breaking point.

This disease is like a psychological earthquake. It just sits around and then you end up in the wrong place with the wrong people and you’re right back in the same place – not working, lying, stealing, anything to keep that high.

Roberston has been sober and drug free since 1988. In 1989 he founded the House of Isaiah in Mabank, Texas, a long-term residential drug and alcholol recovery center for men. More than 1250 patients hae been treated at the 180-acre facility.

Grateful to be alive and calling this the happiest time of his life, Robertson notes that on a 10 point scale, he’s a 12 as far as happiness. ‘I am doing God’s will. I’m at peace and I’ve been forgiven. I have a plan and I’m helping people in my life every single day.’”
Gain through loss.