This week, Darren Waller celebrated three years clean and sober. There’s much cause for celebration too. Because in those three years, he went from rock bottom to the top of the NFL world.
An always personable and well-spoken guy, he has been very open about his story and his musical interests, which keep him busy along with his football budding football stardom. I spoke with him recently about those interests which you can read about here.
I caught up with him Friday from Raiders training camp and asked him what the three-year clean and sober milestone means to him.
“It means a lot to me. It means that I’m not the same person that I was,” Waller said over a conference call. “Before, I wasn’t somebody that was worth looking up to or inspirational in any way. Now, I’m kind of free from that. I can really step into my calling and write my own story. Be of service to other people in the process and inspire people. Me being clean, I feel is me breaking generational curses in my family. I feel like it’s changing what’s cool among young people. It means a lot to me now, I know a lot of people are looking to me for inspiration. So that gives me extra energy as well, so it definitely means a lot.”
There was a time when players might hide such things. Perhaps out of a feeling of shame or embarrassment, and thus adding to a perceived stigma. Waller’s openness about it can only inspire others to seek the help they need. His teammates certainly are inspired.
“He’s a big inspiration to us,” teammate Lamarcus Joyner said of Waller. “He’s actually a leader. I’m pretty sure you know his story. Just to see a guy go through that kind of stuff and clean himself up – both off the field and on the field – it’s just amazing. If you can’t be encouraged by that then you don’t have a heart.”
This would all be heartwarming and inspirational even if Waller were a middling talent on the roster fringe. You’d root for him to keep his dream alive. Such was the case may be a year ago. But he’s a lot more than that now.
“We think he’s a superstar,” Head Coach Jon Gruden said of Waller, who is coming off a season in which he had 90 catches for 1145 yards. Gruden might also refer to Waller as a ‘Grinder’ because he loves guys who overcome adversity.
“He had a dark portion of his life there for a while that not a lot of people come back from,” Gruden continued. “I hope a lot of young people out there get the real story behind Waller that you can beat addiction. If you just listen to Darren Waller on how he did it, he’s a great source of leadership and proof that you can be great even though you had some really dark times.”
Waller was touched by his head coach’s words.
“For Gruden to say that, it means a lot because he’s been around a lot of leaders. He knows what leadership looks like and who can impact people in the right way. I guess you could look at me and see that you don’t have to be perfect in at any stage of your life. . . The Raiders organization is taking just as good of care of me now as they were the first day I got there. I’m just excited to write a new chapter here.”
You love to see it.
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