Commentary: If Steve Sarkisian takes care of himself, he’ll take care of Falcons’ offense

Steve Sarkisian has a drinking problem. We can say this because he has said it himself, and he made it the basis of a $30 million wrongful termination suit against USC, the team that fired him as head coach during the 2015 season.

If somebody wants to call somebody an alcoholic, that’s fine. But it’s only when the addict says, “I’m an alcoholic,” that it really matters because they’re the ones faced with the reality of the situation. They’re the ones who have to decide if they want to live, work and thrive in society. Or they die.

I write this first because the Falcons are convinced that Sarkisian, whose skills as a coach and mind for football are not in question, is, in coach Dan Quinn’s words, “In a good place.”

Sarkisian returned to football in September after an 11-month period as Alabama’s “offensive analyst,” making $35,000. He sought treatment and time for self-reflection. He later replaced Lane Kiffin as offensive coordinator a little sooner than expected, the national championship game. Quinn, after receiving strong endorsements from Nick Saban, Pete Carroll and others, hired Sarkisian as offensive coordinator to replace Kyle Shanahan.

Sarkisian is being handed the keys to a Lamborghini. He will call plays for an offense that led the NFL in scoring (34 points per game), features an MVP at quarterback (Matt Ryan), a cyborg at wide receiver (Julio Jones) and a relative 64-Crayola box of options on the depth chart.

The Falcons’ instructions to Sarkisian look like this: Don’t screw it up. He won’t. Assuming he doesn’t screw himself up.

When things are right in this man’s life, he can coach. He proved this to the late Oakland Raiders’ owner, Al Davis, in his lone season as the team’s quarterbacks coach in 2004. Sarkisian went on to become the USC offensive coordinator.

Sarkisian went on to become the head coach at Washington (where he developed a relationship with Quinn, who was with Seattle at the time) and the Huskies’ offense set several schools. Then USC lured him back as head coach in 2014. But Sarkisian hadn’t accepted his illness, stresses increased and his world collapsed. He reportedly showed up drunk at a booster function and for prepractice meetings. He was fired Oct. 12, 2015, five games into the season.

This is the ugly side of addiction. It doesn’t make Sarkisian a bad person. It just makes him a sick one.

All indications are that he is working a recovery program. There’s a belief by Quinn, after interviewing him and speaking to Carroll and Saban, that Sarkisian is on solid footing today.

“We went through the process to make sure everything would align with our organization in terms of culture and values,” Quinn said. “He’s done a fantastic job. There was zero hesitation, zero limitations, heading into our approach. All players, all coaches, you want to make sure the background is correct. So we went through that process with him.”

So he’s in a good spot, doing what he needs to do?

“Yes. Both.”

If Sarkisian takes care of himself, the story will be about the Falcons’ offense. But that’s up to him.