Injuries, meds doomed BYU football star

"They just kept giving them to him," Ellen Martin said. "At that rate, within a month the kid had a problem."

Martin popped pills before practice because it hurt to hit. He took them after practice because he hurt from hitting. He swallowed them at night to sleep.

By mid-October, Martin's wife became concerned. She asked Martin's father to speak with the coaches and medical staff.

Robert Martin, who along with Ellen traveled from their home in Clovis, Calif., to every Cougar game, said he talked with a team doctor on the sidelines on three occasions. The doctor assured him his son was OK and was being monitored.

"From their perspective, they figured they were doing everything right," Robert Martin said. "In retrospect, either they had no clue or they didn't care."

In addition to legitimately getting pills from team doctors, he deceived other doctors and discreetly hit up teammates who stockpiled them.

Jason Walker, a safety from Springville, knew Martin as well as anyone during their playing days. They arrived as freshmen and became fast friends. They lived together, took classes together, lifted weights together and roomed together on road trips.

Walker said Martin's spiral into addiction came "quickly and quietly."

In Las Vegas for the 1998 WAC championship game, Walker found hundreds of pills in a dresser drawer. "That really took me by surprise to see the amount of pills that were there," he said.

Walker asked Martin about them but said he never really got an answer. Addiction, he said, never crossed his mind. He didn't say anything to coaches because he and Martin were buddies.

"It never would have occurred to me that that was the beginning of the end," Walker said.

The decline

Though pressured by coaches and teammates to play, Martin's drive came largely from within.

He played a 1997 game against rival Utah with a broken rib.

In 1996, he broke his thumb against Washington and played the next week against New Mexico.

He also endured turf toe and chips in his elbow.

Pro scouts had him on their radar screen. Not playing in the college games would seriously jeopardize any chance of playing in the NFL.

"Brad does have a piece of the responsibility. He wanted to be on the field. He just really thought he could control it," Ellen Martin said.

But he couldn't.

Still, the Martins say the coaches and medical staff allowed him to get addicted.

"They knew he was hurt. He was a starting linebacker, a team captain. Having him stand on the sidelines in street clothes, that doesn't go over too well," Robert Martin said. "I think they knew what was going on. They didn't want to deal with it."