Steve Sarkisian’s First Step on His Road to Redemption Starts Now
Whether USC’s firing of head coach Steve Sarkisian was the right thing to do or not, it’s time to move on.
USC fired Sarkisian on Monday, Oct. 12 one day after he was asked to take a leave of absence. Although it was never officially stated why USC fired him, everyone who’s read about it knows that has something to do with his alcohol issues.
Sarkisian was suspected to be showing up to practices intoxicated and even be under the influence during USC’s 42–14 win over Arizona State on Sept. 26. He also had an outburst at a USC pep rally in August when he was slurring his words, insulting opponents, and using curse words in his speech.
He was also rumored to have been a usual in the bar scene when he was the coach at Washington.
Why has he had this issue? Maybe it’s because he’s also been going through a divorce. But whether that’s the reason or not, no one should go digging to try and find out the source of the problem. We don’t need to be focused on that or on what USC is going to do with their head coaching vacancy.
We need to be focused on making sure he gets the help he needs and turns his life around.
Everybody goes through an addiction at some point in their lives, some worse than others, of course. Some people are addicted to their phones, some are addicted to attention, but others are addicted to more serious concerns such as drugs or alcohol.
In my personal opinion, when people have a bad addiction, they aren’t going to stop no matter who tells them to. A go-to statement is usually “I can stop at any time,” and that is just so incredibly rare that it shouldn’t be used at all.
Coming from someone who’s experienced this firsthand, you need to hit rock bottom for you to actually realize that there is a problem that affects your life more than you thought. Hitting rock bottom is the slap-in-the-face that makes you change.
This is Steve Sarkisian’s rock bottom. Now he has no other choice but to change if he wants to stop this downward spiral.
He has taken that first step by reportedly entering a treatment facility.
Sarkisian is at a time in his life that he needs support from everyone, whether you’re close to him or not.
That’s why I love what the BYU student section, nicknamed “The ROC,” and BYU’s athletic department did.
BYU released a video to show support for Sarkisian, who was the starting quarterback at BYU from 1995–96. “Once a Cougar, always a Cougar,” was the tagline from the video that simply shows Sarkisian that there are people that still support him no matter what.
No one really knows what’s next for Sarkisian. No one knows if he will ever coach again.
And that’s fine.
Because he shouldn’t be worrying about what’s next for him job-wise, but what’s next for him in his life. And the first step to that is getting this issue taken care of.
Good luck and Godspeed Steve, we’re all praying for you.
