NFLer Attempting To Rejoin League Following Games Addiction

Quinn Pitcock looked to have a tremendous football career ahead of him when he was drafted and signed by the Indianapolis Colts in 2007. He was coming off a great senior year at Ohio State, where he was a first-team All-American and winner of the Bill Willis Trophy, awarded to the best defensive linemen in college football.

The 6'2", 300-pound Pitcock even made it on to the field in his rookie year, picking up 18 tackles and 1.5 sacks with the Colts.

Then, he retired, for seemingly no reason. It appeared he was another player to come strong out of college and then just become washed up upon reaching the pros.

It was, however, more than that. Pitcock, as he told the Dayton Daily News, suffered from anxiety, which eventually led to addiction. It was not drugs or alcohol that knocked Pitcock back, but video games.

Games addiction is an increasing problem, as many have found out. People forget about work or school, sometimes even family, because of their need to play video games for hours on end.

The gaming website Kotaku reports that Pitcock was one of these people, going on Xbox Live to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at 3 p.m. and continuing until 6 or 7 a.m. the following day.

When he began realizing that things were getting bad, he would smash the discs so as not to be able to play them anymore. Unfortunately, he would just go back out and buy them again the next day, the Kotaku article reports.

Pitcock was finally able to realize that his gaming was getting out of control and sought treatment and counseling to help get over his addiction. 

"It's kind of a weird and unknown diagnosis, video game addiction. It's a newer generation kind of thing," Pitcock told the Daily News. "With me being very open, it's been therapeutic. And I'm surprised how well people listen and really want to understand."

Now that he has gone cold turkey (he threw out his console and has been video game sober for three months), he is attempting to climb his way back into the NFL. This offseason, he was signed as a free agent by Seattle, and has been a part of the team's preseason camp and exhibition games.

With final cuts looming tomorrow, Pitcock hopes that he can make the Seahawks roster and start playing the game that he really loves again.

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