Tony Adams

National Prison Radio: Tony, you served a short sentence in 1990. What was your experience of prison like?

Tony Adams: ‘I went in there basically for a drinking issue, but didn’t realise at the time that it was through my drinking that I ended
up in that situation. I went to Chelmsford prison for a short spell, but I couldn’t really at that moment in time associate what I was doing and ending up in prison I made a lot of excuses, and a lot of excuses from the outside world were being given to me and for me…
What I needed really was education around my illness. I spent another six years drinking and behaving really badly it took me in to hospitals and more bad situations.’

NPR: When did you first realise you had a drinking problem?

TA: ‘In January 1996 … for eight months I did research about my own drug of choice, alcohol. I found that it was the first time that I
didn’t want to drink, but I still found myself getting drunk, I’d lost control over it. That was a big shift for me. And it took me until August 16 to cry and to have my last pint of Guinness. It was a Friday night in my local social club and it was a spiritual moment, a cry for help. I started to cry and cry and asked for help. My colleague at the time Paul Merson, who at that point was about 18 months clean, serene and sober we went to our first AA meeting together and I haven’t had a drink for 15 years.’

NPR: How hard was it to admit you had a problem?

TA: ‘Really difficult. I was full of pride, I was full of shame and the denial was very strong. It’s the only illness that tells you that you haven’t got it, so to get rid of it you have to admit you’ve got it. There’s a paradox in there. I understand that today but I didn’t understand it at the time. So I did everything not to chuck the towel in because I thought chucking the towel in was weakness, asking for help was weakness. It took me to go to the bottom to lose my wife and my children, going to prison, going to hospital to finally, thank god, get it.

NPR: Did the drinking culture in football at the time add to your alcoholism? How hard was it to break away from this?

TA: ‘Football doesn’t stand outside society, it’s a reflection of it, and at that period of time there were a lot of people drinking in top level
football… It was an exception if you didn’t go out and get drunk every weekend. It was a strange thing to do not to drink, but most of
the guys now at the top level don’t touch it. You just can’t be a top footballer now and abuse alcohol.’

NPR: And how much does the media coverage of football and players’ lives add to the pressure on players?

TA: ‘It put enormous pressure on me. Public shame and humiliation is very powerful and it still gets me today. When you’re being held
out there for something that you didn’t do or something that you did do it’s very difficult to handle if you haven’t got the tools to deal
with it. Luckily today I know where to go or what to do when I encounter these pressures and that’s what we do at Sporting Chance. I talk to young players, telling them what they’re going to get and how they can handle it.’

NPR: Tell us more about Sporting Chance and what it does.

TA: ‘We take about 30 people through residential care every year, amateur or professional. We’re a worldwide charity if you’ve got a problem with alcohol or any addiction really, we’ll look after you. People have a perception that it’s the top people that we’re only
treating superstars, but they’re probably only 1%. We’ve had a couple of high-profile players through, but what we do is mostly
with lower-league players, amateurs, we’ve had referees and FA staff, linesmen…’

NPR: To our listeners who have reached a point in their life where they want to turn their lives around what do you say to them?

TA: ‘You’ve got to help yourself. You’ve got to ask yourself and do it yourself that’s the starting point. We’re all human beings here and this disease doesn’t choose careers it doesn’t matter who you are. It’s not a struggle today my emotions and feelings are what I battle with, but I know now that it wouldn’t make it better at all if I go down to the pub.’