As a longtime sports fan as well as a recovering alcoholic and drug addict I always followed the careers of the athletes who got into trouble due to their vices. One of the all-time most corrupt individuals was Ohio State quarterback Art Schlichter.
Well address Schlichter’s problems in a moment. First, the reason for this blog is that he and his attorney are trying to convince a judge that federal prisons should implement a 500-hour drug abuse plan.
You pick a vice and you can bet the 52-year-old former 1st round draft pick has tried it. Do you remember what originally caused his fall from grace?
Drafted by the Baltimore Colts with the 4th pick in 1982, Schlichter went into training camp as the starting quarterback only to lose the job. Another thing he was good at losing was money gambling. The bozo blew his entire signing bonus by midseason. Despite these losses he continued to bet and lose on football games.
During the strike in 1982 he lost $20K on one college football game and had amassed over $700K in debts before the season was out.
From gambling to jail to drugs back to jail his life has been one great big screw up. Making matters worse he wrote plenty of bad checks and stole from friends and family. By his own account he has committed more than 20 felonies.
Maybe his latest will keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. He is now facing 10 years in prison on fraud charges stemming from a million-dollar ticket-selling scheme.
Adding further disgrace to himself, his family and the community Schlichter was jailed after he found to have violated the terms of his bond by testing positive for cocaine use while free on house arrest.
What a mess. From a guy who was an All-American football player. Perhaps if he had more counseling younger. Perhaps if he had taken a drug class or stop theft class his life could have been different. At this point we will never know. His time in the limelight hopefully has faded.