The problem was Jolly stayed with his friends who all were invested in his staying an addict. He should have gotten out of Houston and stayed away from anyone who would try to drag him back into the lifestyle.
Fighting your own addiction is tough enough when you have people who want you to be clean, fighting that and the people who want to sabotage your recovery is impossible.
Sometimes all love and support in the world is not enough.
Originally Posted by: Dexter_Sinister
This is why it would have been great for him to stay around the Packers organization. An addict (no matter the substance, from alcohol, to cocaine, to purple drank) needs people around him who will not enable drug seeking behavior and who will demand accountability from the individual. Being required to show up to team meetings, standing on the sideline during practice, and hanging around current Packers players might have given Jolly the support he needed.
At the very least, the league, when it suspends players and refuses to allow them contact with their team for drug related offenses, should have a policy in place whereby players are either forced to enter rehab, or at least are given the option of rehab. Isn’t it in the league’s best interests to have young, talented players clean and available? Why not set up a system within the league that seeks to combat the systemic issue of drug and alcohol dependence among NFL players? It seems to me that Goodell and the league (and the law to some extent) treat addiction as a moral issue. It is not. As evad04 already expressed, it is very much a systemic issue disproportionately affecting poor inner city communities (and in the case of meth poor rural communities). It is also a medical issue, and an issue very much influenced by genetics on the individual level. Of course the responsibility of the individual as a one with agency to make choices plays in to the equation, but to boil the issue of addiction down to morality is an ethical failing on the league’s part, especially considering the amount of money the league generates from the young (sometimes very young) men cast into the role of millionaire overnight, and taken out of any support system that does exist.
In Jolly’s case, it sounds as if there was not much of a support system around him to begin with. Perhaps he found one in Green Bay, but then he was removed from that support as part of disciplinary action handed down by the NFL. This strikes me as fundamentally unmerciful.
edit: I should add that having a support system around, even one that knows the in and outs of recovery from addiction, does not necessarily mean an addict will get clean or remain sober. Good families, friends, and addicted individuals see relapse happen, perhaps even more frequently than they see successful and ongoing recovery. In Jolly’s case, it is tragic that he was not even given the opportunity to remain in a place where recovery may have been possible.