July 10, 2023 • 15 mins
Wayne Larrivee sits down with former Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lee Ivery to reminisce on his upbringing (0:51), getting moved around the backfield in college/pros (3:34), and how head coach Bart Starr helped him overcome drug addiction (9:56).
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
For more than a century, the Green Bay Packers have
been a benchmark for football excellence. Thousands of players have
helped pave the way, and we're here to tell you
their stories. I'm Wayne Laravie. This is the Packers Alumni
spot Life. Running back Eddie Lee Ivory was drafted into
(00:25):
the first round of the nineteen seventy nine NFL Draft
out of Georgia Tech. He came to Green Bay with
great expectations. Unfortunately, injuries on the field shortened his career,
while addiction nearly cost him his life. But before Georgia
Tech and Green Bay, Eddie was raised right by a
grandmother who was his biggest influence early on.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh absolutely, My grandmother was like my father, my grandfather,
my mother. He just was the backbone on my family cloth.
I grew up around three women, my grandmother, my mother,
and my sister. And when Grandmama speak, you better listen
because if you don't do what she asked you to do,
(01:13):
you're gonna have shoes flying your way. Anything that's in
her sight, She's going to get your attention. I think
that helped me along the way to pay attention in school.
So when I got the opportunity to go to a
school like Georgia Tech. My grandmother had already prepared me
by paying attention.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Pepper Rogers, your coach at Georgia Tech, once called you
the greatest football player he's ever seen. Tell me about
that relationship. Did you have a close one with Pepper
Rogers or how did that make you feel?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Absolutely? I think me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Coacharga, we kind of bonded the first time that we
met because he came down to my high school and
he knew how much I love playing basketball, and so
he comes out on the court and he challenged me
with a long range shot because it was three points
back in those days, but it was at the distance
of long range and lo and behold uh that man.
(02:06):
Uh he beat me, and I was unbelievable. Yes, he
beat me out a game that I really enjoy playing
a lot. But we kind of bunded it right off
the bat. Uh uh. And when I saw that he
only he not only cared for me as a football player,
but he really generally cared for me as a person.
Cause one of the first things Coach Georger said to me,
(02:27):
he said, Italy, he said, we want you to graduate
from Georgia Tech.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It was his word.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Lo and behold, when I finished my career here with
Green Bay, I think when I got drafted, I didn't graduate.
I I uh my, my eight years, nine years was
up with Green Bay package. I went back to my
high school. I was down there coaching and uh coaching
my high school. And I get a call back from
Georgia Tech and by way of Dick Beswick and Pepper
(02:56):
arg just say, edity, after nine ten years, get your
butt back up here and graduate. So he held to
his promise.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Ten years later, ten years after you left Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yes, they put me back on scholarship and I was
able to graduate and.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Get my degree.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Wow, degree in industrial management. That's phenomenal. That is good
t that to his word right.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh, absolute, absolutely, And I think one of the the
the best thing that I think he did for me
to get my career.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Role in it was that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Coach Walder has been running the wishbone all his life
while in UCLA.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
He came down to Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
He implemented the wishbone down there for my three years
and we were having kind of, you know, mediocre season
and not really really really good season. And my last year,
my fourth year, he brought me in the office and
he said, Lee, we gonna put you in the I formation.
(03:57):
And when he did that gave me a opportunity the
tear to showcase the talent that God had blessed me with.
By running only one year, Well, I wish I go back,
and I said, oh, coach, why can't make that decision
about three years? But you were running U the II
formation for one year and still be put in a
(04:19):
position and to be the first round draft choice for
the Green Bay Packer was awesome thing that he did
for me in my career.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, I think when you left schools the all time
leading rusher at Georgia Tech and then your first round
draft choice of the Green Bay Packers, Bart Starr calls
you on the phone, what did you think?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Actually it was Zeke Brkask.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I was out in California, and of course I didn't
know who Zeke Parcassle was because I didn't know who
to run the back coach was. And here I am
waiting on the Falcons because I had them plumbers by
the Falcons that if I was still around in the
first round that they was gonna draft me. Well, that
didn't happen, and so I'm kind of devastating wondering that, well, well,
who else considered me as.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
That number one pick? I don't know, I'm sure enough.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I guess I was the best of the rest that
were left on the ball. But now Zeke called me,
and it was a beautiful thing to be able to
play for an organization that I watched all throughout my
years of growing up.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So I did with the fifteenth pick in the nineteen
seventy nine draft. He was to be the bell cow
and coach Bernstei's offense. But not right away. You see,
the Packers had Turdell Middleton ahead of him. So Eddie
Lee moved to full back.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And my painting worked. Whatever, Well, how are they going
to put both of us in there? I come to
find out later, Well, Treda was going to be the
tailback and I was going to be the fullback. Well
then I just got moved to tailback last year. Now
now you want me to move again to pullback, And
of course I did, and I think that probably kind
(05:58):
of contribute because I had to put on some weight.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I never played over.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
One hundred and ninety five pounds, and I think when
I got to Green Bay. I was actually put on
some weight to play full back, and of course that
Crucia's game in Chicago on that turf. I told my
ten year Crucier Likun.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
You had two major injuries, I believe, both left knee
injuries in two of your first three years in the league. Yes,
and back then knee surgery wasn't quite what it is today.
It was pretty much major. There's a career that could
have been tremendous, and yet the injury situation. Do you
feel like your career was a little unfulfilled because of
(06:40):
those injuries?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Absolutely, I feel like it was unfulfilled because of the
strike season that we had, because I was I think
at that time, I was pretty much recovering from a
knee injury. I came back in nineteen eighty I believe,
in almost a thousand yard nine hundred plus yord Russian
(07:03):
and then of course that eighty one was devastating. The
same place, same same feel, same knee heard again. And
I think that when that happened and we came back
that eight or two season, I started listening to the
critic about how running backs are never the same after
(07:24):
having not only one surgery but after going through two
knee surgery that they'll never be the same. And so
I started listening to that, and I began to get scared,
and I began to be fearful of my career, and
I started making some bad choices. And then when we
had to strike, it gave me the opportunity to go
out there and do whatever I needed to do to
(07:47):
to to ease the feeling that I have I had
of oh man, my career is bight over.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You fought and fought the good fight with one of
the greatest demons anyone could uh could take on, and
that is substance abuse, that's drug abuse. And is that
where it kind of began, that part of your career
where you're wondering can I ever make it back?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Absolutely without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's when it became because when we had that strike,
She's not That gave me opportunity to go out and
not be a part of an organization that's trying to
prepare for.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The football team. So I had a lot of part
of the time.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I would hate to put it like that on our hands,
and I truly believe, you know, I'll never look back
over and say, you know, if God has done this
because it is what lives. I think I had to
go through what I had to go through for me
to be the person that I am today. But and
like when I did go through it, that I realized that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Wow, what could have been? What could I be? That's
a question that you and I would never know. But
I knew this. I knew that when I got on.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
That football field, I gave it all I have.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I gave it all I had. Nope ever play. I'm
coaching that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
And when I tell the kids, they asked you how
you do it? I said, you go out there and
you run one player at the time, and you run.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
It for me. That's all you do.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And whatever talent that you've been blessed with, you're going
to make the adjustment to who you are.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Just run it for me.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And that's how I did.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Of course, the game is played a little different now,
so you know, I think about playing these days, I
might will last in still nine years.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I might have had about fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah. No, you had tremendous talent, Eddie. You were a
franchise running back coming out of college. It just didn't
work out with the injuries, and then you battle the
substance off you. So I want to go back to
nineteen eighty three start of the season. You guys had
come off of playoff win over Saint Louis with they
were high hopes for the eighty three team, but you
were battling a cocaine issue, and Bart Starr called you
(09:54):
in his office. I can't think of anyone who would
be more compassionate than him, and Bart later lost the
son to addiction, so he knew what was tell me
about that meeting and about bart Starr and the way
he handled that meeting with you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, he brought me in and obviously, you know, we
had random drug tests and I had failed the drug tests,
and so he brought me in and he simply asked me,
was I okay. He was looking at me. It almost
looked like he had tears in his eyes because he
knew that I was not being honest with him. And
(10:33):
I said, yes, sir, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I'm doing good, sir.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And and as we began to talk, I think I
had got tired of playing game with myself and playing
game with the Great May Packer organization. So I got
beautifully brutal honest with coach Starr.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
That's a coach call, please help me.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And for and could have ended my career right then
and there because I had failed a drug test.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
But it's sad he chose to help.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But I allowed me to go seek help and and
when I did, it allowed me to play.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Five more years.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, thirty years later. It's still emotional, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Well, people don't understand.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That mark to save my career playing and put put
profession in the football coach start saved my life because
I could have been going out there using it and
and that coulda been in But when he gave me
the opportunity to seek help, and and.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
And and and and and and to.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Realize that that football is only part of life. That's
not who you are, Italy. That's something that you're good at,
you're doing, but that's not who you are. But all
my life, that's all I've done. So I had no
other identity whatsoever. And that identity was about to become
(12:13):
one of those homeless, sleepless addicts out in the street.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
If it had not been from Barston.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
There was still a fight ahead. Though you still have
many many years ahead to battle.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
That absolute at the battle was still there.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Until when I moved to Tempa or my family left.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
My family had.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Got tired of my craziness, and so they decided to
go to separate rightlessness. So because of my children's safety.
October twenty eight or nineteen ninety eight, it's when I
called the NFL Players Association and I asked you. When
I cried out to them, I said, man, look, can
y'all please help me?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Once again?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I'm crying out and I've tried several different things. Georgia
he and he m uh uh came in and and
uh and allowed me to play uh uh go to
uh P Street Charter uh Rehab Center right there in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
They was trying to help.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But but one thing that I found out through addiction,
you just can't help.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Nobody who don't wanna be helped.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I was finally sick and tired of uh s s
sick and tired of ben t sick. I called the
NFL Player Association. They called me down there in in Atlanta.
Georgia uh uh from Washington, DC called me and Thompson
and from Thompson uh I went to Atlanta and the
(13:46):
rest is history. Here I said for you here before
you today, what twenty two, twenty three.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yes, so surprised to buy the grace of God.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Wow, it's amazing when you battle something like that, it's you,
it's really you. I mean the help helps, but that
it's really you.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Absolutely, it really, really, really really come more down to
or do you really want to get help or you
really seeing times of being sick And it's come down
to a person's decision and you eventually know, you know,
don't let nobody tell you the addict that you.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Know, yeah, he know, you know when you are sick
and tied.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It's just a matter of a swallowing that ego, that
pride and say, Okay, I'm no longer trying to save
my faith.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm trying to save my life today.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Now you can say whatever you want to say about
Italy I in his career as an addict. Right now
I'm trying to save my life. And by the graciual God.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The strength of a grandmother and the discipline of football
helped him beat his greatest opponent. Today, Eddie Lee Ivree
is back at his hometown of Thompson, Georgia, where his
experien aarience in both football and life make him an
invaluable coach and mentor to the young people in his community.
For more than a century, the Green Bay Packers have
been a benchmark for football excellence. Thousands of players have
helped pave the way, and we're here to tell you
their stories. I'm Wayne Laravie. This is the Packers Alumni
spot Life. Running back Eddie Lee Ivory was drafted into
(00:25):
the first round of the nineteen seventy nine NFL Draft
out of Georgia Tech. He came to Green Bay with
great expectations. Unfortunately, injuries on the field shortened his career,
while addiction nearly cost him his life. But before Georgia
Tech and Green Bay, Eddie was raised right by a
grandmother who was his biggest influence early on.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh absolutely, My grandmother was like my father, my grandfather,
my mother. He just was the backbone on my family cloth.
I grew up around three women, my grandmother, my mother,
and my sister. And when Grandmama speak, you better listen
because if you don't do what she asked you to do,
(01:13):
you're gonna have shoes flying your way. Anything that's in
her sight, She's going to get your attention. I think
that helped me along the way to pay attention in school.
So when I got the opportunity to go to a
school like Georgia Tech. My grandmother had already prepared me
by paying attention.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Pepper Rogers, your coach at Georgia Tech, once called you
the greatest football player he's ever seen. Tell me about
that relationship. Did you have a close one with Pepper
Rogers or how did that make you feel?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Absolutely? I think me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Coacharga, we kind of bonded the first time that we
met because he came down to my high school and
he knew how much I love playing basketball, and so
he comes out on the court and he challenged me
with a long range shot because it was three points
back in those days, but it was at the distance
of long range and lo and behold uh that man.
(02:06):
Uh he beat me, and I was unbelievable. Yes, he
beat me out a game that I really enjoy playing
a lot. But we kind of bunded it right off
the bat. Uh uh. And when I saw that he
only he not only cared for me as a football player,
but he really generally cared for me as a person.
Cause one of the first things Coach Georger said to me,
(02:27):
he said, Italy, he said, we want you to graduate
from Georgia Tech.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It was his word.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Lo and behold, when I finished my career here with
Green Bay, I think when I got drafted, I didn't graduate.
I I uh my, my eight years, nine years was
up with Green Bay package. I went back to my
high school. I was down there coaching and uh coaching
my high school. And I get a call back from
Georgia Tech and by way of Dick Beswick and Pepper
(02:56):
arg just say, edity, after nine ten years, get your
butt back up here and graduate. So he held to
his promise.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Ten years later, ten years after you left Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yes, they put me back on scholarship and I was
able to graduate and.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Get my degree.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Wow, degree in industrial management. That's phenomenal. That is good
t that to his word right.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Oh, absolute, absolutely, And I think one of the the
the best thing that I think he did for me
to get my career.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Role in it was that.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Coach Walder has been running the wishbone all his life
while in UCLA.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
He came down to Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
He implemented the wishbone down there for my three years
and we were having kind of, you know, mediocre season
and not really really really good season. And my last year,
my fourth year, he brought me in the office and
he said, Lee, we gonna put you in the I formation.
(03:57):
And when he did that gave me a opportunity the
tear to showcase the talent that God had blessed me with.
By running only one year, Well, I wish I go back,
and I said, oh, coach, why can't make that decision
about three years? But you were running U the II
formation for one year and still be put in a
(04:19):
position and to be the first round draft choice for
the Green Bay Packer was awesome thing that he did
for me in my career.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, I think when you left schools the all time
leading rusher at Georgia Tech and then your first round
draft choice of the Green Bay Packers, Bart Starr calls
you on the phone, what did you think?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Actually it was Zeke Brkask.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I was out in California, and of course I didn't
know who Zeke Parcassle was because I didn't know who
to run the back coach was. And here I am
waiting on the Falcons because I had them plumbers by
the Falcons that if I was still around in the
first round that they was gonna draft me. Well, that
didn't happen, and so I'm kind of devastating wondering that, well, well,
who else considered me as.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
That number one pick? I don't know, I'm sure enough.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I guess I was the best of the rest that
were left on the ball. But now Zeke called me,
and it was a beautiful thing to be able to
play for an organization that I watched all throughout my
years of growing up.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
So I did with the fifteenth pick in the nineteen
seventy nine draft. He was to be the bell cow
and coach Bernstei's offense. But not right away. You see,
the Packers had Turdell Middleton ahead of him. So Eddie
Lee moved to full back.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
And my painting worked. Whatever, Well, how are they going
to put both of us in there? I come to
find out later, Well, Treda was going to be the
tailback and I was going to be the fullback. Well
then I just got moved to tailback last year. Now
now you want me to move again to pullback, And
of course I did, and I think that probably kind
(05:58):
of contribute because I had to put on some weight.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I never played over.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
One hundred and ninety five pounds, and I think when
I got to Green Bay. I was actually put on
some weight to play full back, and of course that
Crucia's game in Chicago on that turf. I told my
ten year Crucier Likun.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
You had two major injuries, I believe, both left knee
injuries in two of your first three years in the league. Yes,
and back then knee surgery wasn't quite what it is today.
It was pretty much major. There's a career that could
have been tremendous, and yet the injury situation. Do you
feel like your career was a little unfulfilled because of
(06:40):
those injuries?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Absolutely, I feel like it was unfulfilled because of the
strike season that we had, because I was I think
at that time, I was pretty much recovering from a
knee injury. I came back in nineteen eighty I believe,
in almost a thousand yard nine hundred plus yord Russian
(07:03):
and then of course that eighty one was devastating. The
same place, same same feel, same knee heard again. And
I think that when that happened and we came back
that eight or two season, I started listening to the
critic about how running backs are never the same after
(07:24):
having not only one surgery but after going through two
knee surgery that they'll never be the same. And so
I started listening to that, and I began to get scared,
and I began to be fearful of my career, and
I started making some bad choices. And then when we
had to strike, it gave me the opportunity to go
out there and do whatever I needed to do to
(07:47):
to to ease the feeling that I have I had
of oh man, my career is bight over.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You fought and fought the good fight with one of
the greatest demons anyone could uh could take on, and
that is substance abuse, that's drug abuse. And is that
where it kind of began, that part of your career
where you're wondering can I ever make it back?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Absolutely without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
That's when it became because when we had that strike,
She's not That gave me opportunity to go out and
not be a part of an organization that's trying to
prepare for.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The football team. So I had a lot of part
of the time.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I would hate to put it like that on our hands,
and I truly believe, you know, I'll never look back
over and say, you know, if God has done this
because it is what lives. I think I had to
go through what I had to go through for me
to be the person that I am today. But and
like when I did go through it, that I realized that.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Wow, what could have been? What could I be? That's
a question that you and I would never know. But
I knew this. I knew that when I got on.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
That football field, I gave it all I have.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I gave it all I had. Nope ever play. I'm
coaching that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
And when I tell the kids, they asked you how
you do it? I said, you go out there and
you run one player at the time, and you run.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
It for me. That's all you do.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And whatever talent that you've been blessed with, you're going
to make the adjustment to who you are.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Just run it for me.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
And that's how I did.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Of course, the game is played a little different now,
so you know, I think about playing these days, I
might will last in still nine years.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I might have had about fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah. No, you had tremendous talent, Eddie. You were a
franchise running back coming out of college. It just didn't
work out with the injuries, and then you battle the
substance off you. So I want to go back to
nineteen eighty three start of the season. You guys had
come off of playoff win over Saint Louis with they
were high hopes for the eighty three team, but you
were battling a cocaine issue, and Bart Starr called you
(09:54):
in his office. I can't think of anyone who would
be more compassionate than him, and Bart later lost the
son to addiction, so he knew what was tell me
about that meeting and about bart Starr and the way
he handled that meeting with you.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, he brought me in and obviously, you know, we
had random drug tests and I had failed the drug tests,
and so he brought me in and he simply asked me,
was I okay. He was looking at me. It almost
looked like he had tears in his eyes because he
knew that I was not being honest with him. And
(10:33):
I said, yes, sir, I'm doing good.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I'm doing good, sir.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And and as we began to talk, I think I
had got tired of playing game with myself and playing
game with the Great May Packer organization. So I got
beautifully brutal honest with coach Starr.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
That's a coach call, please help me.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And for and could have ended my career right then
and there because I had failed a drug test.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
But it's sad he chose to help.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But I allowed me to go seek help and and
when I did, it allowed me to play.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Five more years.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, thirty years later. It's still emotional, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Well, people don't understand.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That mark to save my career playing and put put
profession in the football coach start saved my life because
I could have been going out there using it and
and that coulda been in But when he gave me
the opportunity to seek help, and and.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
And and and and and and to.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Realize that that football is only part of life. That's
not who you are, Italy. That's something that you're good at,
you're doing, but that's not who you are. But all
my life, that's all I've done. So I had no
other identity whatsoever. And that identity was about to become
(12:13):
one of those homeless, sleepless addicts out in the street.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
If it had not been from Barston.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
There was still a fight ahead. Though you still have
many many years ahead to battle.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
That absolute at the battle was still there.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Until when I moved to Tempa or my family left.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
My family had.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Got tired of my craziness, and so they decided to
go to separate rightlessness. So because of my children's safety.
October twenty eight or nineteen ninety eight, it's when I
called the NFL Players Association and I asked you. When
I cried out to them, I said, man, look, can
y'all please help me?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Once again?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I'm crying out and I've tried several different things. Georgia
he and he m uh uh came in and and
uh and allowed me to play uh uh go to
uh P Street Charter uh Rehab Center right there in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
They was trying to help.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But but one thing that I found out through addiction,
you just can't help.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Nobody who don't wanna be helped.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I was finally sick and tired of uh s s
sick and tired of ben t sick. I called the
NFL Player Association. They called me down there in in Atlanta.
Georgia uh uh from Washington, DC called me and Thompson
and from Thompson uh I went to Atlanta and the
(13:46):
rest is history. Here I said for you here before
you today, what twenty two, twenty three.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yes, so surprised to buy the grace of God.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Wow, it's amazing when you battle something like that, it's you,
it's really you. I mean the help helps, but that
it's really you.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Absolutely, it really, really, really really come more down to
or do you really want to get help or you
really seeing times of being sick And it's come down
to a person's decision and you eventually know, you know,
don't let nobody tell you the addict that you.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Know, yeah, he know, you know when you are sick
and tied.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
It's just a matter of a swallowing that ego, that
pride and say, Okay, I'm no longer trying to save
my faith.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm trying to save my life today.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Now you can say whatever you want to say about
Italy I in his career as an addict. Right now
I'm trying to save my life. And by the graciual God.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The strength of a grandmother and the discipline of football
helped him beat his greatest opponent. Today, Eddie Lee Ivree
is back at his hometown of Thompson, Georgia, where his
experien aarience in both football and life make him an
invaluable coach and mentor to the young people in his community.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.