Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 18, 1993 TAG: 9302180388
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY BELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FROM FOOTBALL TO COCAINE, TO HELPING KIDS
Former Dallas Cowboy football pro Gerald Britt hugged a pregnant ninth-grader in front of 150 of her peers at the Roanoke County Career Center on Friday."Take care of yourself, and you will be able to take care of your baby," he told her.
Turning to the teens in the gymnasium, Britt asked for love and acceptance for the ninth-grader.
Britt, a recovering cocaine addict, visited Vinton to talk to teen-agers about drugs as part of a weeklong, yearly drug and alcohol awareness program in the schools. He later met with students and teachers in smaller groups.
"It's real painful for me to go into schools across America and talk to students because what I see is kids who are angry, depressed and feeling hopeless. How we feel about ourselves affects all areas of our lives."
Britt sacrificed a career in the National Football League in the 1970s because of an addiction to the drug.
Using personal experiences to illustrate how hopelessness emerges, Britt said he was raised by an alcoholic father and stressed-out mother. Most of the time he was bored and felt unloved.
He was 9 when he was sexually abused by an older cousin.
"By the time I became a teen-ager, I was sure something was wrong with me that all these things happened," he said. Some students shook their heads in agreement.
Because he needed something to hold onto, athletics became an obsession for Britt. He was a High School All-American football player, won college scholarships, and eventually was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. There he began using cocaine to gain acceptance from teammates.
"All I ever wanted was to be a good boy and do the right things. But as soon as I used cocaine, everything changed in my life - my whole attitude changed. The friends I had used drugs. I isolated myself from family. I became depressed and ashamed."
After walking away from a career in professional football, Britt returned to his hometown, Franklin.
By 1979 his drug addiction had taken over his life. He stopped returning calls from football recruiters. His wife developed multiple sclerosis and couldn't walk, talk or feed herself, and their three children lived with relatives while he remained isolated and addicted.
In his own words, Britt was a walking time bomb by 1985.
"I used $1,700 worth of cocaine in six hours and dropped 60 pounds in 12 weeks."
He developed cocaine psychosis and eventually tried to take his life before seeking help.
As assistant vice president of marketing and director of cocaine programs for Recovery Management, a company serving people with addictions, Britt has shared the intimate details of his past with thousands of students for the past 15 years. His lectures illustrate how low self-esteem leads to drug addiction, promiscuity and other social ills.
He doesn't stand and talk from a lectern. Several times, he walked up into the bleachers to make a point.
"The reality is that things are even more difficult for you than when I grew up. People who love themselves do not abuse drugs and alcohol and talk badly about others or lack compassion," Britt said.
He told students that they sacrifice love for themselves when they are attracted to peers with low self-esteem. Don't accept people at face value just because they present themselves as friends, he told students and teachers.
Britt, whose wife died eight weeks ago and who has lost several friends to AIDS recently, said there is no escape from pain.
He said he started rebuilding his own self-esteem at age 32 after confronting his addictions and seeking professional help.
"Find someone to share your pain with. The solution has your name on it. You do not have to stay angry. You do not have to live in pain."
Britt, now the father of four, said, "My biggest challenge is to be a good father to my children and to have fun in a healthy way. I was everybody's hero at one time in my life. We all need to learn to be our own heroes."