Addiction and athletes: Who's to blame?

Last in a series

Addiction to prescription narcotics often starts innocently for an athlete.

Following surgery for a damaged knee or shoulder, the doctor prescribes about 10 days worth of painkillers.

"Very few (injuries) require more than a couple of weeks worth of meds," says University of Utah team doctor Amy Powell. "Acute injuries calm down quickly."

But for whatever reason, after the bottle and perhaps a refill are gone, the pain persists. Pressure mounts from coaches, teammates and within to stay in the lineup. The athlete starts hitting up teammates and friends for extra pills to get through practice. As the season ends, the player might go doctor shopping or shop online. Soon, a dozen pills aren't enough and the habit gets expensive. Cheaper and more accessible illicit opiates, typically heroin, become attractive.

"It's almost a natural progression," said Sandra Knowles, a Provo psychiatric nurse practitioner who specializes in addiction. "I have seen that multiple times in athletes."

And that's what happened to former Brigham Young University linebacker Bryant Atkinson, who became addicted to painkillers after three knee surgeries. He was arrested this year for possessing and intending to sell heroin. Atkinson entered a plea in abeyance last month to the felony charges. He's trying to get his life back on track.

A question that arises is how much culpability rests with the university and how much rests with the individual.

Are coaches, doctors and trainers in any way to blame for a player who develops a prescription drug habit? Or does it fall strictly on the athlete?

"The bottom line is no one wants to take responsibility," said Marcus Amos, a former collegiate academic mentor who now makes presentations on preventing opiate addiction.

A school's responsibility

Brigham Young University considered itself at least partially responsible in 1987 when three players became addicted to Percodan in the wake of a scandal that resulted in the state of Utah reprimanding a former team doctor for improperly dispensing painkillers.

Paul Richards, BYU's public spokesman back then, almost excused the athletes, suggesting they might not have been aware of the drugs' addictive nature nor been knowledgeable about proper dosages.

Several players from that era who abused painkillers declined to be interviewed. One said he did not want to tarnish the BYU football program by bringing up the past.

BYU assistant coach Dick Felt wondered at the time, "Where does our responsibility begin and end, and where does the player's responsibility begin and end?"