Former NFL player tells students to find out “how good they could be” without alcohol
Former NFL player Dennis O'Sullivan came to campus to talk to athletes about how drugs and alcohol interfere with performance. He is shown here with DelVal baseball player Dan Spall, a freshman from Jackson, N.J.
Former NFL player Dennis O’Sullivan isn’t an alcoholic, but alcohol has had a major impact on his life and athletic career. On Jan. 27, O’Sullivan told a crowd of about 100 DelVal students in Moumgis Auditorium about how alcohol and drug use interfere with performance.
The event was made possible by DelVal's U-ChooZe committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. U-ChooZe works to promote healthy choices within DelVal's community by providing peer-to-peer messaging and fun, educational activities to teach students about the effects of alcohol and drug use.
The group applied for the grant from the NCAA and raised additional funds to bring O'Sullivan to campus.
“Your performance will never be what it should be (as an athlete or a scholar) if you drink,” said O’Sullivan. “…You don’t have to be an alcoholic for alcohol to have a huge impact on your life.”
O’Sullivan, who drank socially during his career with the Jets and Texans, left football due to an injury.
He later learned that alcohol can impact a person’s peformance the day after drinking and even increase a player’s risk of being injured.
O’Sullivan shared a study of sports-related injuries that found drinkers were more than twice as likely to get injured. The injury rate for drinkers was 54.8 percent and only 23.5 percent for nondrinkers.
He said he shares his story and the information from the studies because he wishes he would’ve had that information.
“You have an open book test,” he told the DelVal athletes in the audience.
O’Sullivan is the vice president for professional and college development for the American Athletic Institute, a sports consulting firm that offers insight and educational programs on a variety of issues from alcohol and drug abuse to sportsmanship and hazing.
O’Sullivan used photos of DelVal sports teams throughout his presentation as well as real stats from DelVal’s seasons.
He went through the ways going out and consuming three or more drinks in an evening can affect the body.
He discussed how heavy drinking interferes with hormones, blood sugar and can even prevent the body from getting enough REM sleep.
In one American Athletic Institute study he shared, researchers took muscle biopsies from an athlete before and after training. They found that one night of heavy drinking could ruin the positive effects of two weeks of intense training (on an athlete’s muscle).
He also spoke to the students about some studies related to THC and athletes. He said THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana, can stay in a person’s system 60 days after smoking and impact performance.
“Do we have any cheerleaders in here?” O’Sullivan asked the students. “Who do you want catching you? Someone who is going to be a little slower?”
O’Sullivan showed a Sports Illustrated photo of swimmer Michael Phelps wearing eight gold medals next to a photo of Phelps smoking.
He cautioned students against looking at Phelps as an example of an athlete who was able to smoke and compete. He said Phelps was caught smoking after he won the medals, while he was taking time off from swimming.
In response to other athletes that have done well while using alcohol or drugs, he asked students to think about how good those athletes could’ve been if they were sober.
“What is an acceptable performance?” O’Sullivan asked the students. “We may have someone on the basketball team that scores 12 points a night. That sounds great, but if that person should be scoring 15, suddenly that doesn’t sound so great.”
He told the students to find out how good they could be without alcohol or drugs.
“I promise you, you’ll never look back and say, ‘I wish I drank more in 2011-2012,” said O’Sullivan. “It’s not going to happen…You might look back and say, ‘What could I have done at DelVal if I didn’t drink as much?”
He pointed to the late Mickey Mantle’s baseball career as an example. Mantle was a heavy drinker who regretted his alcohol abuse and the toll it took on his body later in life.
“As good as he was, he could’ve been that much better,” said O’Sullivan.