Football and a Game Plan for Recovery (from alcoholism)

The Chicago AA office issues a newsletter named "Here's How".  They recently published an article I wrote celebrating the start of the NFL season- and relating a particular game to the priority of staying sober.

Wanted to share the story with you.

Football and a Game Plan for Recovery

Well its football season again. A few days ago, I was watching the Chicago Bears pre-season game. I am a huge NFL fan and a die-hard Chicago Bear fan. I’m predicting (like always) this will be a good year for the Bears.

Watching this game got me thinking about a Bears game several years ago where an event happened that caused me to reflect on the stages of recovery. This analogy that I will describe is like many I get regarding real life situations and how they relate to alcoholism. I don’t know why I get these thoughts or inspirations, but I do know they mean a lot to me, are spiritual in nature and I am grateful to God for giving them to me.......




So on to the analogy. The Bears are playing who knows what team. Something very unusual for the Bears defense is happening. The opposing team is running successfully against their defense. Play after play. Not mildly successfully, major advances. Eight, ten, fifteen yards a clip. It’s getting worse by the minute. The Bears are not adjusting, can’t figure out what to do to stop this. But noticeably they are not calling a time out, not adjusting their strategy, just doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. That’s insanity and all can see it. I’m screaming now for them to call a time out and make a change. But it takes forever to happen. More damage on the field, more yards piling up, and despair is setting in for the team and their fans. We can all sense where this is going. Downhill, spiraling out of control. How is this going to stop?

Then it happens. The coaches call a time out. The defense is called together and radical change is made to the strategy. When they come out of the huddle, they move to an eight man front. They have decided to do whatever it takes to stop the run. They can’t think about all the implications of what this means for other aspects of the game. They must focus first on the major problem at hand. Take all necessary measure stop the run. If they don’t do this one thing all other strategies don’t matter. All other plans don’t have any value or future. They will just go down the tubes and get crushed. They in essence have surrendered to the situation. They have moved out of denial. They have become willing to change. They have understood that they must make this task their number one priority. Right now, before it’s too late.
…then they can assess what comes next. What other adjustments need to be made, what other plans need to be developed, what the next priorities are. But they must stop the dysfunction, unmanageability and certain disaster now..stop the run, right now at all cost.

Sorry, not sure how they fared that day. I think they won but that’s not the important thing. Not the moral of the story. What I can tell you for sure is that they stopped the run. Immediately, without question or debate. They did what they had to do to stop the run. It was their number one priority. Without doing this the entire game was lost.

Okay so the moral of the story. You probably already see it. When we were drinking and drugging life was totally running over us. We couldn’t stop it. All our attempts at doing what we thought we should to stop it failed. Over and over. Same plan, (like, not drinking during the week, drinking only beer,
leaving after two) same result. Our situation was worsening, disaster looming. Everyone (our fans) could see it and where begging for us to call a time out. They said do it before it’s too late and the game for us was over. We needed an entire new game plan, a new strategy, new tools, and a new way of addressing our life’s problems. But none of this would happen if we did not surrender and call a time out. Talk with our coaches, our sponsors and mentors. Connect with our Head Coach, our Higher Power. Stop the insanity of drinking and drugging to medicate and escape for a few hours. Do this first, immediately and with total focus as a first step.

Then we can (and we do) address future needs and issues. In a sane way, without the constant chains of alcohol and drug obsession; without the continual and gnawing insight that disaster is looming and is sure to come.

And where does our new game plan, our twelve step program of recovery lead us to in order to continue onto this better life; a saner way of living where we can obtain a level of emotional sobriety as well as physical? A place where we can actually be still and experience being comfortable in our own skins?

First to a Higher Power, then with His help and the assistance of others, to the identification of the exact nature of our wrongs. That is, our character defects that cause us to continually seek escape from ourselves. The flaws that drive us to escape through our addiction. Fear, anger, resentment, lust and selfishness lead the way along with any other negative traits that moved us farther away from our God and fellows. We eventually become willing to let these go while Humbly asking for their removal.
This strategy puts us back on the field of life with a new plan. A new approach. And most importantly a focus and understanding that first, most importantly, with total commitment, we will stop the most important thing we need to stop-our addictions, and then move on to a new life of promise and hope, fueled by the twelve steps of recovery.

Go Bears! Go my friends in recovery!

Rick H.