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Celebrities & Addiction: Charles R. Cross on Ryan Leaf

BY Rachel Belle  on February 19, 2013 @ 6:22 pm (Updated: 9:04 am - 2/20/13 )

ryan_leaf.jpg
Back when he was a Cougar at WSU, life was good for quarterback Ryan Leaf. But since he was drafted to the NFL in 1998, nothing seemed to go right. In 2000, the Chargers lost 15 games and Leaf only won four games in three years as a starter.

An episode of NFL Top 10 ranked him as the No. 1 "draft bust" in NFL history.

Then his NFL career ended, and Leaf has spent the last couple years in and out of court and jail, on drug and burglary charges related to the pain pills he became addicted to. He pleaded guilty to eight felony drug charges in 2010.

Leaf is now in a Montana prison after being kicked out of a drug treatment program. A plea deal is in the works.

I think a lot of us tend to think people with money and fame are immune to being unhappy. That money and attention makes someone feel whole. But Charles R. Cross, Seattle author and journalist, perhaps most well known for his 2001 biography of Kurt Cobain, knows better. He's dealt with a lot of famous people and their addictions.

"I think everybody in our society has a tendency to think that if you had fame and money, everything would be fixed. The reality is, from all the rock stars movie stars and famous literary people I've met in my life, fame and money only make those problems increase."

He talked about Kurt Cobain.

"I was shocked when I found out the very first time he ever overdosed on heroin was the same night he was on Saturday Night Live. To me, in my mind set, I couldn't figure that out. How could you overdose and do drugs on a night where it seems like you were suddenly famous and successful? But that doesn't heal the wound that's there from childhood. In fact, from what I know about Kurt and Jimi Hendrix, it was exacerbated by being famous. All those childhood hurts. You still have the same parents even though you're famous and rich. You still have the same past and maybe the same addiction history in your DNA. Suddenly you're famous and you have access to drugs you didn't have before. That's one of the problems that comes up again and again and again."

He said sobering up can be harder for someone like Ryan Leaf, who's being judged by the entire country.

"It certainly does not help when you are Robert Downey Jr. or you're Charlie Sheen or you're Ryan Leaf and every single thing you do gets covered in the press. There's hounds of paparazzi when one of those guys makes an appearance in court. That doesn't make them feel good about their addiction. It's hard. I don't think we can just shame people into getting better. We have to come up with real solutions to drug and alcohol addiction."

Cross thinks Leaf's addiction to pain pills represents a countrywide epidemic.

"Prescription narcotic pain pills cause exactly the same euphoria as heroin or cocaine. As a society we think the person who's using heroin is somehow worse or dirtier or it's a more shameful thing than somebody using Oxycodone. But it's the same effect on the brain."

He says Leaf can recover from this, but it takes major changes. Cross says Kurt Cobain went to rehab five times, with no success.

"It is a lifelong thing. It requires making major lifestyle choices. It requires either changing your career you're in, changing all your friends, changing your profession, changing your state. For someone like him, who's had a cycle of this, it's not one year, it's not falling off the wagon. We're talking about multiple years, we're talking about multiple crimes. Something really needs to be reset."

Rachel Belle, Ron and Don Show Reporter
Rachel Belle is a feature contributor and personality on The Ron & Don Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 3-7pm), and host of Ring My Belle Weekends (Saturdays at 5pm and Sundays at 3pm).
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Comments (14)


  • Add A Comment

  • Newton wrote...
    Its Satan.
    February 20, 2013 6:12 am
    Satan made him do it. The Devil has got a hold on his soul and he's to weak to stop him. The devil is always invited in by the host.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • soo purletiv wrote...
    @ Newton
    February 20, 2013 7:55 am
    So.... What's your excuse?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Speaking of guns..
    February 20, 2013 9:02 am
    Here's a guy that shouldn't have one. Rage, drugs and a bullet plus murder is what will make yet another Ryan Leaf headline. Keep him locked up.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    how does Cross...
    February 20, 2013 9:38 am
    keep showing up?

    his historical fiction novel about Kurt should have been more than enough fodder to keep him from spouting off about the woes of Kurt.

    again, i don't blame Cross entirely. Courtney Love had to OK everything he wrote about Kurt. maybe Cross had some real cred before her, but after Heavier Than Heaven, he lost it all.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • deltta wrote...
    I don't care
    February 20, 2013 10:01 am
    He's just another druggie loser.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ssbn629g wrote...
    Very nice...
    February 20, 2013 10:50 am
    What do you use to clean the windows in your glass house?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • deltta wrote...
    Windex
    February 20, 2013 11:15 am
    What do you use?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • soo purletiv wrote...
    I prefer
    February 20, 2013 12:56 pm
    diamond coated sand paper to clean mine.

    But I hear vinegar and water work just as well!

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ssbn629g wrote...
    Newton
    February 20, 2013 10:48 am
    Your pious, religious dogma is showing
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • 0623 wrote...
    Silly conversation
    February 20, 2013 1:59 pm
    Sad to say--none of you sounds as if he/she knows what he's talking about. If you had seen Ryan Leaf, as I did, during the brief time he was in recovery, you'd be cheering for him to get back there. The fact is that effective treatment for prescription drug addiction is, indeed, a huge mystery. The craving manifests itself in different ways, in different victims; and no standard approach works for all. BUT the day I saw Ryan Leaf, he was one really happy guy--a very different person from the troubled college quarterback whose amazing talents were NOT making him happy,even in 1997. Because science really doesn't know how to help him, he'll have to do it on his own. But those of us who are rooting for him look forward to the time he truly wins this war.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • soo purletiv wrote...
    @ 0623
    February 20, 2013 7:22 pm
    Science does not know how to help pedophiles either (since that is your standard). Should we keep rooting for those among them who are successful college athletes?

    Or do you have a cut-off point?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • 0623 wrote...
    pedophiles
    February 21, 2013 8:29 am
    I would certainly applaud any who are able to overcome their illness on their own and permanently
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ssbn629g wrote...
    Overcome permanently
    February 21, 2013 9:34 am
    Permanence comes in day to day, minute by minute choice... Permanence in regards to addictive behavior is a mirage.... Not a place to be reached and achieved. Like the Schick Shadel spokes person saying that the urge to use has been erased forever.... Forever?.... No way to know because no one has been to forever I do wish Ryan well in his challenge with addiction Name it Claim it Tame it
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    What else is new
    February 20, 2013 3:40 pm
    And no I do not feel sorry/guilty for people that waste their lives away. The story and his bad luck does not move me.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }