Hunter Opens E To Sobriety
Patrick Hunter reached a point where the two intoxicants in his life football and alcohol began to blend.
He’d often drain a 40-ounce malt liquor on the way to the Kingdome before games.
Granted, there are some folks who make a practice of that: fans getting a little juiced before kickoff.
But this was the starting cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks.
Hunter also found himself pounding down more of those 40-ounce refreshers between twoa-day practices in training camp.
Thus, for eight years, Hunter descended in a dizzying downward spiral of DWIs, court appearances, assault charges and negative headlines.
All the while he stacked one solid season upon another in the National Football League an overlaying reality that had to be as disorienting as the illusions triggered by his alcohol binges.
During games, he now admits, he would find himself hoping the clock would speed up so the partying could resume.
Long uncommunicative with the press, Hunter decided to open up this season and unveil the details of his drinking problems.
He’s been sober since April and faces an autumn of more challenges than ever.
“I just finally wanted to set the record straight,” Hunter said of his emergence. “So that it’s not all speculation, so people will be able to report what really was happening, not what wasn’t.”
The drinking began in earnest his rookie season, he explained.
Trouble soon followed. In 1988, he missed eight games after driving his Mercedes off a 30-foot embankment in Kirkland after “celebrating a Seahawk win,” he said. A year later, he was acquitted of assault charges against a girlfriend outside a nightclub.
More recently, he drove his truck into a Bellevue Fire Department aid car. When breath-tested, Hunter reportedly blew a staggering .26 blood-alcohol reading.
Emotionally, Hunter was further jolted in the spring of 1993, when friend John Magee was killed - in Hunter’s presence in a shooting outside a Pioneer Square bar. A month later, Hunter’s father died.
Bottom was struck when Hunter showed up at the office of his probation officer with alcohol in his system.
On April 4, he checked himself into Lakeside Recovery Center in Kenmore.
Thirty days in rehab and 45 more in jail led Hunter into the 1994 season. Aside from the nagging residual problems from February shoulder surgery, Hunter is in the best condition he can recall.
“Physically, this has been easier,” Hunter said of a training camp seen through clear eyes. “But being injured has been a problem. If the shoulder was A-OK, then, yes, it would be a lot easier than before.”
He was asked if the natural competitiveness he carries as an athlete can be applied to his attempts to defeat alcohol. Hunter made it clear that those two things are separated.
“Those were problems I had that were life problems and I’m willing to work on them,” he said. “The fact that I’m a football player means nothing to those problems.”
While there is now less deception involved, Hunter’s life is more hectic.
“I’ve got five meetings a week, as well as all the practices and football meetings,” said Hunter, who attends Alcoholics Anonymous gatherings four times a week in addition to another group-counseling session. “So, there’s an awful lot going on outside of football.”
Hanging over his head is the possibility that his alcohol-related legal problems - currently being reviewed by the NFL will result in a suspension or fine.
The NFL has an established policy on drug-related incidents, but none on alcohol.
“It would be nice to know (what’s going to happen), but no news is good news right now,” Hunter said. “And considering they have no set policies, I would hope the commissioner would take into consideration what I’ve already done. There’s a lot that has already happened; I’ve paid for what I did.”
Hunter has a point. And if intentions carry any weight, his commitment to sobriety appears sincere.
It might be hard for the typical fan to work up a mass of sympathy for Hunter, seeing how he willingly endangered his lifestyle, his wealth and his physical gifts. But this is a man deserving of support - who is engaged in a very important struggle.
A man to whom football may have come easily.
But life has come with damnable difficulty.