Nelson dining hall, fall of 2001. My friends and I are eating lunch. One of our cohort is drunk at 11 AM, well on his way to drinking himself out of school. Wild Irish Rose was his poison of choice. Brinker comes up to us in his game jersey, asks us if we're coming to the game Saturday, holding a handful of student tickets. The drunk raises his head, says, "Chad Brinker! Can I have your autograph? You're my hero!" Brinker looks at him, laughs sarcastically like a high school bully, says, "shut up." We explained that actually the drunk talked about Brinker all the time and Brinker really was his hero, but Brinker did not provide the autograph.
And that's my Chad Brinker encounter from when I was a student.
Did the drunk ever straighten himself around? I have several cousins who have serious alcohol problems. This seems to run on my mother's side, as her father had alcohol issue also. My cousins are now all sober due to AA. One will soon celebrate his 20th anniversary of sobriety. Whenever I hear a story like yours, I always hope that person got the help that they needed.