After Throwing It All Away, Steve Sarkisian's Redemption Story Has to Start Now

Last week, Steve Sarkisian was fired as USC's head football coach and suffered his deepest embarrassment in public. Now comes the hard part: the part done in private.       

The noise of the scandal at USC may have softened and the spotlight on Sarkisian dimmed, but what about the man now fighting his sickness? How do we gain perspective on what Sarkisian might be going through as he battles a drinking problem and reportedly enters rehab?     

We do just what he's doing: lean on the experience of those who have been through it and those who are experts in treating it.

Kevin Mackey has been through it. Mackey was called the King of Cleveland after his little Cleveland State basketball team beat legendary Bobby Knight and Indiana in the 1986 NCAA tournament. Mackey became a local hero—until his alcohol addiction became public when he was arrested and fired for driving under the influence in 1990.

What was Mackey going through immediately after? What might Sarkisian be feeling today?

"How did I throw it all away?" Mackey said. "That is what I was thinking."

Even now, it's a feeling that haunts him. "Thank God it is 25 years ago in the rearview mirror," Mackey said.

When seeking treatment, that regret comes mixed with the awful physical effects of withdrawal.

Dr. Damon Raskin, doctor at the Cliffside Malibu treatment center specializing in addiction, described that side of it.

"You can be susceptible to seizures, severe tremors, dehydration," Raskin said. "Detox involves medication to help get the alcohol safely out of your body. Especially with alcohol, if you abruptly stop drinking when you're a regular drinker, that can be medically dangerous. He'll be seeing a medical doctor, like myself, and you'll usually be seen by a psychiatrist as well as a therapist. Individual therapy, group therapy to delve not into the drinking but the underlying issue.

"I'm hopeful he's in rehab; I assume he is. He clearly reached a new bottom, and that's what happens especially to well-known people or celebrities: They really have to reach bottom to get the help they should have gotten a long time ago."

Why does it reach this point? Why did those around Sarkisian—or Mackey—ignore clear warning signs along the way to "rock bottom"? We don't know all the specifics there, but we saw the tip of the iceberg. When USC athletic director Pat Haden had to pull Sarkisian away from a microphone at a preseason rally because he was drunkenly using bad language, why did he not see that that was a cry for help?

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

"I think that's the classic example of not wanting to deal with it, of enabling the person," Raskin said, speaking theoretically and without knowledge of what might have been done behind the scenes at USC. "The bottom line is…the athletic director felt pressure publicly to just excuse the behavior. "

Firing Sarkisian might have been the best thing Haden did for him, but it was too late. Knowing that he needed help, knowing he was going through a messy divorce, Haden left Sarkisian in one of the most pressure-packed jobs in the country and enabled him to continue his descent.

Why didn't Haden take Sarkisian away from the team right then?

Is it because doing so would have risked his football season—and the chance to reach the pot of gold that is the College Football Playoff? Maybe he had to determine if Sarkisian's health was worth risking that.

Mackey comes from a sports background and can somewhat understand the decision Haden was facing. That doesn't mean he thinks Haden shouldn't have sent Sarkisian right to therapy, and away from football, before the season started.

He just understood.

"A number of things enter into it," Mackey said. "It's a big-time program. A lot of people's livelihoods depend on all of that. That's all part of it.

"[And] sometimes when people aren't educated about the disease, when they try to help you, they just enable you."

You wonder if Sarkisian will be saying these same things in 25 years, if Mackey is his voice from the past.

Mackey is now a scout for the Indiana Pacers. After his arrest, he never coached again.

Of course, Mackey remembers the high point of his coaching career. He was a hero in Cleveland after his team beat Bobby Knight's. "Oh yeah," Mackey said. "Now, afterward, believe me, I celebrated pretty good."

The city celebrated with him. What people didn't know at the time was that Mackey's celebration was also a symptom: He was an alcoholic. He hadn't even admitted it to himself yet.

That's why Mackey identifies with Sarkisian, even though he doesn't know him. Mackey has seen it before. He has been it before. He sees so many of the same symptoms from Sarkisian that he experienced nearly 25 years ago.

"A big-time coach has a problem, a big-time player has a problem, and it comes to the forefront of the discussion," Mackey said. "It's a tragic situation, and God forbid anyone have to go through it.

"In 1990 when I was going through everything, I said, 'The disease is alive and well and thriving out there.' Well, it's true today, and it's only getting stronger. What happens—and this is with all addictions, whether alcohol, drugs, whatever—you lose your job, you lose your family, you get arrested. And if you keep going, you lose your life."

You'd think the message is already out there. It's hard to see why anyone let Sarkisian goes as far as he did without help.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Raskin explained that people with substance abuse issues, particularly famous people and athletes, are able to surround themselves with "people who are enablers, people who may lose their job or lose their friendship [if they try to help the addicted person]. They want to hang on to that spotlight.

"A lot of them know, but they aren't willing to help. Alcoholics and drug addicts are very good at hiding it. That's part of the disease."

Mackey said he used to hide it by moving around, never staying at the same bar more than two hours. He also said that he never drank before work or at work. Only after.

"I waited," Mackey said. "I could wait until my workday was done. Now, on Saturdays and Sundays, if I had morning practice, the cocktail hour would begin at 11:30, 12."

Mackey said he has been sober for 25 years. He believes that addiction affects everyone's life either directly or indirectly—whether it be over alcohol, drugs, gambling, even eating—and that kids should be taught about it.

He also says that despite all the enablers, the person who picked up the alcohol or drugs is the person who is responsible.

But that person needs help. No matter how painful it is.

We can only hope that that's what Sarkisian is getting now.

Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report.