Erik Ainge: Fallen New York Jets QB Talks About Drug Addiction

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Erik Ainge Opens Up About His Experiences with Substance Abuse

If you were to go and look up what Erik Ainge did in the NFL, you're not going to find much evidence that he was there at all. In two seasons as a backup quarterback for the New York Jets, Ainge never threw a regular season pass. In fact, the last time he was on the national radar at all was back in the summer or 2010, when he went into rehab shortly before the Jets were about to open training camp.

Even before Ainge went into rehab this past summer, his substance abuse problems were not exactly a secret. He is sober now, but his problems with drug addiction go back pretty far into his personal history.

Ainge recently told his story to Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com. In a word, it's pretty dramatic.

Ainge, who is the nephew of former NBA player and current Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, says he started using drugs at a very young age, and that he was an addict by the time he was a senior at the University of Tennessee. That's when he got hooked on painkillers, partially so he could combat the pain of a broken finger in his senior season with the Volunteers.

"I was hooked on them and I was playing football, and there was no way I was going to cancel my senior year by going to rehab. I started getting them from people, buying them, getting them off the street. I wasn't the only player on the team that was doing it.... We knew people who had them, and we were Tennessee football players, so they pretty much just gave them to us."

This means that Ainge was already an addict by the time the Jets drafted him in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft, and the problems did not go away during his rookie year. He said he would take as many as 25 Percocets at a time, and then do it again several hours later.

Eventually, Ainge ended up in rehab in the spring of 2009. He would come out clean, but he says he was out of rehab for only three or four months before he started drinking socially. It wasn't long before he was a full-blown alcoholic, but he didn't think that an alcohol problem qualified as a drug problem. He finally relapsed with hard drugs when he went on a two-week bender in July of 2010.

"I went to Tennessee to visit friends, and I had some trouble with the law," he said. "It never got reported because the cops were Tennessee fans, and they saw how bad a shape I was in. It was so bad that I don't even want to talk about it. I was cuffed, but instead of busting me, the cops called somebody in town that knew me."

Two days later, he was in rehab again. He spent about four months in two Boston area rehab centers and a halfway house. He was able to remain clean the whole time, and he was finally prescribed with medication for rapid cycling bipolar disorder, which he says is "a daily battle in itself."

Ainge says he's been clean for eight months now. Nevertheless, every day is still tough because of how long it's been since he's had to deal with his problems without drugs, his "No. 1 coping mechanism."

Unfortunately one of the bigger problems for Ainge these days is that he can't afford to partake in as many recovery groups as he used to thanks to the NFL lockout, which has canceled his substance-abuse insurance.

"The lockout has caused a lot of problems for me.... If I were a normal player -- let's say I had a broken leg and I was in the hospital -- they'd have forms they would've sent me to continue receiving insurance through the NFL. Since I'm a drug addict in the drug program, my insurance just got canceled, and I didn't like that."

Still, Ainge finds ways to persist. In particular, he has learned to absorb the spiritual influence of his uncle, saying that he hopes "he can make Erik Ainge a positive name again if I make the right decisions from here on out."

As for Ainge's future with the game of football, he is aware that making his comeback is not going to be so simple. All he's focused on now is staying fully sober, something he hasn't been since he was 11. In the meantime, Ainge has tried to use his story for good. He goes around speaking to Boston high schools, which he says "makes it easier for me to stay clean, knowing I can help other people."

"I'm showing people that love me that I am changing for the better through my actions," he says, "and I'm starting to make amends to those people I've wronged.... I should've been there for them, and I wasn't. It's a long, hard process, asking for forgiveness, but I plan on doing it -- for them and for myself."

Lastly, Ainge said, "I still have fear, but I'm not afraid."

A truly harrowing story, to say the least. From the sound of things, we should be thankful that Ainge is still alive at all. Here's hoping he can stay on the path he has put himself on, whether or not it eventually leads back to football.

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