Recently Oscar De la Hoya, the Golden Boy of boxing, made an open and honest confession that surprised everyone. He confessed to a constant struggle with alcohol and drug abuse within the last few years while also being unfaithful to his now ex wife. De la Hoya has been to rehab and is now sober for the last 3 months but admits that this is the hardest fight of his life, even harder than fighting all the fighters he fought in his career at the same time!
The revelation from De la Hoya surprised a lot of people but at the same time it shouldn't really. We have seen many sporting greats over the years have trouble with addictions, George Best, Alex Higgins, Diego Maradona, Paul Gascoigne and Tiger Woods to name a few.
The problem for sports stars especially with alcohol is that alcohol has been associated with sports probably from they originated and will continue to be so in the future. Regardless of the level and result/performance on a Saturday or Sunday it has always been the norm to drink afterwards. When you lose or perform bad you want to drink to cheer yourself up (like Zac Guilford recently (All Blacks player)) and when you win you want to drink to celebrate. Soccer and Rugby for example have huge drinking cultures associated with them for years and probably in the past players may have had addictions but nobody found out as there wasn't as much media exposure.
Nowadays players are always exposed to the media and with this comes added pressure. With this exposure players are seen as celebrities and with celebrity status comes constant invitations to parties and the lure of harder substances such as drugs are constantly around them. It's easy for sports stars to get drawn into a world they are not used to and as a result resort to things they are not accustomed to.
Sports stars can have alot of free time on their hands when they are not training or in the off season which can leave them with a void to fill as the excitement of training or matches isn't there. It is known within the soccer world that players after training in some clubs have a poker game. Others will turn to other things such as drink and drugs. Addictions in boxing are known to start at the end of a boxers career. The reason for this is that their lives feel empty without having a hectic schedule of training or the excitement of the build up to a fight and the fight itself so they fill this with something else. Sports stars get paid huge sums of money these days and with this there isn't alot they cant afford to buy. The cost of these habits does not impact them anymore and in fact money probably pushes them towards them because they are not used to having so much money and with all this money they probably get addicted even quicker.
Society today is getting faster and more hectic with more and more addictions popping up as people try to cope with their lives. In the world of sport it is even harder for them due to the media exposure and pressure they are faced with. I am not making excuses for sports stars but everyone can see the constant temptation they would be facing as even the people around them may be forcing stuff onto them. I think sports stars need the excitement and thrill outside their sporting lives. Some get it from investing money into other business and horses but for alot of them this comes from drinking, drug abuse, gambling and so forth. What eventually happens is that they become too fixated on this aspect of their lives and eventually become addicted.
Some sport stars like Barry McGuigan, Muhammed Ali, Christiano Ronaldo and Darren Fletcher to name a few are teetotallers and have their reasons for this. In some cases this has probably helped them get to the pinnacle of their careers and you have to respect them for holding to their guns despite all the pressures they are surrounded with.
Overall I think that sports stars, like everyone in life, have their own demons and pressures and use typical methods within society to combat these. Really sports stars are just a reflection of the society we live in, only difference is that as they are our role models we expect more from them. I think more should be done from a coach/club point of view on the topics of addiction to try and steer sports stars away from these addictions. But as the world evolve's and more addictions come to the fore do not be surprised to see more and more sports stars making the tabloids for the wrong reasons. Hopefully though brave and courageous confessions like De la Hoya's may help other stars admit to their addictions in time or help steer them clear.
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