TSN: Ian White - Left Behind

[Roomba With a Bauer]

My sister became addicted to drugs as a teenager, pretty much destroyed her life and my family, and died of an OD last year at age 39. Her and her addict "spouse" got their COVID stimulus and put it straight into their noses. Never worked an honest day in their life and didn't know what to do with all that money except snort it. She left behind four kids and the guy refuses to give them to someone better because they are his paycheck.

It's very strange to simultaneously feel so much hate and pity when I hear about drug addicts like this. It breaks my heart that those four kids have nothing but the same in their futures.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

realianwhite07

for Instagram. It’s bad

Holy f***. I really wish I didn't see that.

 

[Bench]

Holy f***. I really wish I didn't see that.

Reminds me of when I checked what Dustin Penner was up to lately.

 

[nhlisawesome]

Reminds me of when I checked what Dustin Penner was up to lately.

I thought Penny was doing a woodworking thing? He off the rails to?

 

[lomekian]

TSN Original: Left Behind

Very sad. I hadn't heard anything about this. I always liked White as a player.

NHL & NHLPA not giving a rats arse and completely failing in their duty of care? Sounds par for the course

 

[lomekian]

"We're a family..."

Ugh... Red flag. Right there.

Well, they can be a family. Lots of families betray each other...

 

[lomekian]

realianwhite07

for Instagram. It’s bad

Bad doesn't even start to cover it. holy hell

 

[cjm502]

The shirtless "salt bae" posts with the bleached blonde hair give me huge Bradley Nowell vibes in the worst possible way

 

[Stony Curtis]

That's heartbreaking, I will have to listen to the Ian White interview later today. I hope he can get help and someday reunite with his family. I know there isn't much helping an addict until they want to help themselves, but man I wish someone could help the guy out so bad. Leaving a wife behind is one thing, having your kids grow up without you is a whole different level of awful.

I know from personal experience that when addicted to a substance it can be hard to even fathom the thought of living without that substance. You don't fully realize how much better off you are being sober until you really are sober, and sometimes it takes being sober for quite a while to have that realization. It can be a bit of a catch-22 and it's really unfortunate.

Wishing Ian and his family the best.

You just have to have faith in what sober people tell you: Your life will get better...maybe not right away (although mine did), but it will. You just have to stay the course, and most of us do that through making connections within the recovery community.

 

[ZenOil]

I thought Penny was doing a woodworking thing? He off the rails to?

Just go on his twitter and come to your own conclusion. His full time job is tweeting about covid. Seems like a shit life to me.

 

[avssuc]

realianwhite07

for Instagram. It’s bad

Bad is really underselling it, pretty sure I'm on a terrorist watch list now.

As a guy that used oxies and brown liquor to take the edge off one too many combat deployments, I feel for everyone involved here. Still, after seeing what he shares with the public, it's pretty clear that he's early in recovery. Harboring all that hostility can't make it easy to stay clean, not for me anyway, and it's just toxic in general.

I wish the dude the best, but he needs to get off social media for a bit, collect his thoughts, it's been a long two years.

 

[guinness]

Sadly, there are probably decades of Ian Whites in the NHL, or similar players in the NFL, MLB, NBA, La Liga, EPL, etc.

Not just pain killers, throw in alcohol, amphetamines, cocaine, and also probably the macho angle, "it's fine, tough it out". And who knows how many had CTE.

I unfortunately see the aftermath of these cases at work, and 2020 was bad. We feel that people just couldn't get the help they needed, but drugs were still easy to get.

I've blocked Meta anything, and so can't see his Insta, but maybe that's fine. Social media is also like a drug. I deleted my Reddit account a few months ago, as it really feeds on personal biases and even when I didn't want politics, I got politics in nearly everything.

I looked at Penner's Twitter feed, and it didn't seem that bad, lots of pictures of woodworking projects and a huge F1/Lewis Hamilton fan. Didn't back too much further.

 

[Bench]

I looked at Penner's Twitter feed, and it didn't seem that bad, lots of pictures of woodworking projects and a huge F1/Lewis Hamilton fan. Didn't back too much further.

I'm a fan of woodworking. Glad he's focusing on that now. But...



I don't care where you stand on the politics, this is just tasteless to me.

 

[Stony Curtis]

I'm a fan of woodworking. Glad he's focusing on that now. But...



I don't care where you stand on the politics, this is just tasteless to me.

It's freaking awful, but that's where we are today. Everything is condensed for our easy consumption, and no one has any doubts about whether or not to share that poison with others. It's intellectual fast food, and it's about as healthy for you as McDonald's. Someone needs to do a Morgan Spurlock "Super Size Me" type documentary about the current political landscape.

/end rant

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Wow, that was not only incredibly sad hearing about Ian but confirms what most have been saying about the PA and League in general. Disgusting really. these guys are treated like cattle.

It's a job. A great compensation package, but at the end of the day it's a job. If you quit your office job, you don't expect your employer to check in on you and help you with life a year or two later. No-one does because it'd be silly and we're all sort of aware of what our relationship to our employer actually is based on (it's a transaction, we get money and they get our services, that's it). The same way I know that most of the co-workers I'm friendly with will disappear the moment I take another job.

It shows what a bubble athletes live in that they're often surprised by the way these things change once they're out of the game.

 

[guinness]

It's a job. A great compensation package, but at the end of the day it's a job. If you quit your office job, you don't expect your employer to check in on you and help you with life a year or two later. No-one does because it'd be silly and we're all sort of aware of what our relationship to our employer actually is based on (it's a transaction, we get money and they get our services, that's it). The same way I know that most of the co-workers I'm friendly with will disappear the moment I take another job.

It shows what a bubble athletes live in that they're often surprised by the way these things change once they're out of the game.

TBF, even with your current employer (depending on size), they might have an employee assistance program.

My current one does, and while it can't solve all problems, and it does also take an employee making that first step, it's not a long winding tunnel of one fending things off by themselves.

I can see the angst at the player's association in these instances though too, as it's a player's union, exclusive to the players. They paid in dues after all.

And it shows how powerful addiction is, White had a pretty wife, has kids, and they still couldn't pull him back.

 

[heyfolks]

It's a job. A great compensation package, but at the end of the day it's a job. If you quit your office job, you don't expect your employer to check in on you and help you with life a year or two later. No-one does because it'd be silly and we're all sort of aware of what our relationship to our employer actually is based on (it's a transaction, we get money and they get our services, that's it). The same way I know that most of the co-workers I'm friendly with will disappear the moment I take another job.

It shows what a bubble athletes live in that they're often surprised by the way these things change once they're out of the game.

My employer, until recently, didn't demand injections for me to work. Didn't knowingly provide me drugs to alter my mental state but allowed me to physically perform for their benefit. My employer isn't providing medical professionals who tell me how safe the Oxycodin is or how other drugs are a medical benefit.

As for benefits and support the NFL has an assistance program

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/media/nfl-alumni-association-partners-with-aac

The UAW and others have pensions and retirement benefits.


Bubble - To be clear this article focuses on his wife, and she isn't asking for a hand out. I'd ask who creates the bubble? Very few make it to the NHL who are addicts. They become addicts after their arrival. Mac or Probie and Coke is one thing, pain killers provided by the team a complete other.

 

[Retire91]

First of all I am glad this topic exist because these kind of discussions don't happen often. This type of life is lived by countless people because there is little statistics on it. People who have pretty much lost the ability to exist on their own and just consume anyone that offers help until that person either gives up or goes down with them. I have experienced friendships like this first hand and everyone I've know that goes down this path I've seen their personality change. Its like the substance literally alters their brain chemistry and the difficulties they originally faced become compounded by the new inability to physically function.

If we were a more intrusive society someone like this would get intervention level help where some care steps in to help them navbigate life without the destructive elements but intrusive programs like that not only have a cost they can overreach becuase the people that run them are also just human themselves with flaws of their own. So I can only advocate for these programs from an idealist standpoint and the pragmatist in me knows that its a slippery slope that can go worse than the original problem itself.

As to the financial points I personally don't look at sports contracts like the job paradigm most of us are used to. There is so much more money in excess of figures we can even wrap our minds around (at least most of us lol). I kind of laugh at these fines the league hands out because a $5000 fine to them would be like fining you or I 2 dollars for leaving the coffee maker empty. There is so much excessive money floating back and forth there is no reason the owners, league, players union couldn't set up some programs for people. Like the Konstantionv go fund me a few years ago broke my heart. The guy was surrounded by millionaires and at least one billionaire family but he is doing go fund me for living expenses. Making 4-9 million dollars a year is a whole different world than making 40K annual. One is pay check to pay check, the other one you can buy private islands as your second home.

If I was an owner I might consider offering players to make part of their contract a type of trust that roles into annuities for long term care. Maybe they never need it or maybe it ends up not being enough but at least its something and that trust could be protected from the reckless spending and lifestyles that multiple head injuries and pain killer addiction can lead too.

Anyway these ideas are not perfect and its low hanging fruit to shoot holes in them but my philosophies all come from the wish that we would take care of each other better.

 

[Frk It]

Anyway these ideas are not perfect and its low hanging fruit to shoot holes in them but my philosophies all come from the wish that we would take care of each other better.

+1.... this

 

[CalumetHockeyTown]

Several years ago my wife had cancer surgery, the doctor prescribed OXY to her. She was so scared of addiction she stopped taking the pain killers and suffered through the pain. She did say while on it she felt awesome and that scared the crap out of her.