The thing that I am surprised at, that is has been going on a long time, so how did USC not vet him to find this out, or they were convinced that he was just going through a phase? I can't remember, did Washington fight to keep him?
From personal experience, to be going to work drunk, he had to be heavily addicted, let me explain. When I was going through my divorce, I wasn't working and I was drinking a lot, maybe 12-15 beers a day. It got to the point that beer wasn't working for me, it couldn't get me that buzz fast enough, so I started drinking vodka. I would start at about noon and just keep going, it didn't matter if I had appointments or not and if I can remember correctly, I went to a few interviews after I had been drinking.
It got to the point, where if I woke up at 3:00 AM, I would swallow 4-6 ounces of booze and start my day until I passed out around 9 or 10 in the morning and repeat the process. The 4-6 ounces became 6-8 ounces. I went through a 5-6 phase where I don't remember a thing, but I had 4-5 empty half gallons of vodka on my counter. I was at the point, where if I didn't drink, I was violently sick, so I needed to drink just to get out of bed. My body needed the booze. I literally couldn't go 15 seconds without vomiting if I didn't drink. Without the booze, I couldn't eat or sleep. The withdrawals were brutal.
Now, Sarkisian was showing up to games and meetings under the influence, and this tells me that he is at the point of where I was. His body needs the booze, and with his job, he can not call in sick and he doesn't have the time to take 4-5 days off to dry out, or he tried drying out and he was so sick, that he couldn't take it, like I couldn't, and he drinks. When this happens, I always had a pretty high BAC, and one of my last drinking days, I was arrested for DUI, and my BAC, 5 hours after the arrest, was .341.
I went to a non-medicated detox and those first 3-5 days were brutal. I assume that Sarkisian will be going to one of those expensive rehabs where he will be medicated to help with the withdrawals and then he can get on with his rehabilitation.
Of course, this is just what I suspect he was going through, because from experience, I could make it through the work days at one point, and then it got to the point where I needed to drink to function, and that led me to drink and drive, drink before interviews....if I had been working, I am willing to bet that I would have drank before work or I would have called in because there was no way I could have gone to work, as sick as I was, and then start withdrawing at work.
I doubt he gets a head coaching job anytime soon. Employers will work with alcoholics, but once that line is crossed where a person drinks on the job, most people aren't going to touch him.
He should have enough money to forget about work for a while and concentrate on trying to stay sober, because if he continues, and he will continue at the same pace and get worse, he will die. I know I would have died if I kept going. My liver was shutting down, as was my kidneys, pancreas........
Best of luck to him.
