Digital Social Hour
From Champion Coach to Addiction Advocate: A Powerful Journey | Coach Cochran DSH #1187
Mon, 17 Feb
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Step into an extraordinary story of resilience, redemption, and purpose on this special episode of the Digital Social Hour Podcast with Sean Kelly! 🎙️ Join us as we welcome legendary college coach turned addiction advocate, Coach Cochran, for a raw and inspiring conversation you won’t forget. From dominating the sidelines and winning 8 national championships to battling a hidden decade-long addiction, Coach Cochran opens up about his powerful journey of recovery and transformation. 💪✨ Discover how this champion coach went from coaching elite athletes to exploring Las Vegas tunnels with a charity group, helping the homeless, and launching the American Addiction Recovery Association. 🏈➡️💜 Whether you’re a sports fan, someone battling addiction, or just need a boost of inspiration, this episode is PACKED with valuable insights and hope. 👉 Don’t miss out on this eye-opening discussion about breaking stigma, overcoming addiction, and making a real impact. Tune in now, and be part of the change. Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:41 - Exploring the Tunnels in Vegas 04:29 - Finding Your Purpose 05:44 - College Football Salaries Surge 07:50 - Leadership Techniques 13:41 - Understanding Addiction 18:10 - The Dangers of Overdosing 20:45 - Identifying Addictive Substances 21:24 - Returning to Rehab 22:51 - Rise in Overdose Deaths 29:58 - AARA Overview 32:13 - NIL Impact on Sports 38:53 - Henry Ruggs Case Analysis 40:02 - Most Athletic Sports Compared 42:56 - Future Plans for Coach Cochran APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Coach Cochran https://www.instagram.com/coach_cochran_ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ #recoverycoach #addictioncounselor #mentalhealth #substanceabusecounseling #chrisherren
Chapter 1: How did Coach Cochran get involved with helping the homeless in Las Vegas?
Cool to learn from you. And now you're on a new mission. Big mission. Yeah, we'll dive into it. You were just out here in Vegas exploring the tunnels, right? Yeah.
Just checked out the tunnels. A group called Shine a Light took us around Saturday to go feed, give them water, meet them, kind of see where they are, meet them where they are. Saw some really interesting things. Yeah. There was a... There was a guy there that has been there for 10 years. He lost his entire house in a hurricane in Puerto Rico. Found his way to Las Vegas.
Soon as he landed, all of his luggage got taken. Whoa. So he tried to get a job. He tried to move, tried to shake. Couldn't. Found himself in the tunnels. Yeah. And has been there 10 years. That's crazy. And just talking to him, he's not leaving. That's his home. Yeah, at that point, that's a long time. Yeah. We offered him, like, go to rehab, offered him beds, and he was like, no, I'm good.
Wow. He's more comfortable there than rehab or a bed? Correct. Interesting.
And what I'm finding out, talking to the people at Shinalight, that if you offer them a bed and they come to, they've never had a bed in so long, they freak out for the first like two weeks, just trying to understand that like they have a place, they don't have to go run and chase food. And so they have to figure out their mindset and how they change the way
They think completely because they went from every day. I want to go hunt either for a substance or food and then find a way to get back to that bed that they created. Wow. But it was, it was tough because it was their home. You know, so I was real careful with how I filmed my stuff. Yeah. Did they let you film like? They did. Oh, they did.
Wow. As long as you didn't, I just didn't feel comfortable filming them. Yeah. Or filming their like specific little hole that they've created. Yeah. I heard some of them get pretty pissed down there. Yeah. Yeah. So I stayed away from that. Did you see a lot of substance use down there? I didn't see the use, but I saw the paraphernalia. Hmm.
Yeah, that's a common thing, I bet, down there. And it's been freezing lately, so they're probably trying things to get by. Heck yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's a tough life. Was there a lot of people down there? Um, the route that we went, I think we saw probably 20, 25 people. Oh, that's not as much of that thought. That felt the same way. I thought I was going to see a lot more. Yeah.
Cause there's documentaries about those tunnels with like hundreds of people in them. Maybe they were just out and about.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Coach Cochran to pursue a career in coaching?
And so it was really cool. You found your purpose. I found my purpose. Coaching. Yeah. What do you think about coaching just drew you to it? Helping others. knowing something that they don't know. And I don't know, I have a way of inspiring. I think it's a gift that God's given me to inspire others or that I can get on their level.
I think really what it is, what it is. Absolutely. I'd say that's probably part of the reason of your success. You're doing it for that reason while some coaches do it for monetary reasons, right? For sure. Other reasons.
Because you got to think when I first started coaching, there wasn't much money in it. It wasn't something that you're like, oh, that's a great career. There were a few outliers, but not until about 2010, it exploded. In that range, I'd say 2009 to 10, it just, all salaries exploded. What caused that? I would say the Saban effect. he pushed the envelope. He got offered jobs left and right.
And at the time, Alabama wanted to keep him. You know, he had left LSU. He had left the Dolphins. I think whatever. And so then it was like, okay, if you have a good coach, you got to take care of him. And then that coach was like, well, in order for me to be successful, I got to take care of my staff. So he set the bar high. Oh, my God, yeah.
So he gets a lot of credit, not just being for the awesome coach that he is, but also what he did for college football. Yeah. I remember growing up, seeing him on TV and just really admiring it, honestly. Yeah, man. What he did was he set the tone.
yes and he did it in so many ways right that was the cool part is like his leadership skills his the his demeanor with players you know being from west virginia it was almost like he could get on the same level as the guys yeah what was the leadership style like was it a fear-based style was it respect what what was it it was respect he uh I think his perception would be fear based.
I think that's how it looks on the outside. But he was probably the most genuine and he would give the player respect. He would earn their respect. Really? Yeah. It was really cool. Wow. Like his way of doing it is, Hey, I know football and I can help you get to where you're trying to go. And if I can help you in academics and if I can help you,
like even guys that struggled with substances like he took care of them oh my gosh he helped so many guys got so many guys in the rehab wow you don't hear about this side of the no like
really really when you say you know you hear recruiting pitches in college football and his his pitch was real you know and I think Kirby is very similar and trying to be that way and I've only worked for those two guys so I can't speak on anybody else but most of the time it's just a pitch right you know but
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Chapter 3: How did college football salaries surge over the years?
And I also found if I did this, it did not work. So try to learn not to do it that way, but they're kids. They're going to, you know, everybody learns their own way. They're going to mess up. Your brain's still developing. Right. Exactly. That's right. Yeah. I look at the decision that I made in college and it's almost laughable now. It's unreal. I was thinking that way.
Yeah. You know, it's really, it's really cool. Yeah. And the first time it's really interesting because the Raiders are here. Right. Well, the first time I realized about the brain, the cerebral cortex, the frontal lobe of the suit is not fully developed. I figured that out when Amari Cooper got drafted to the Raiders. And he was like... I don't, I don't, I'm not driving.
I'm like, so how are you getting around? Like you just signed a multimillion dollar deal. You should just get a car. And he's like, I'm not comfortable with it with that. And I was like, well, why don't you just rent a car? And he goes, that would be a good idea. I could learn how to do this. He was only 21. Wow.
And so when I saw that, that's when we started developing the mental program for football players or for college football players in my profession, right? We started developing that because their brain wasn't fully functioning. So you could actually, I'm not going to say brainwash, but it felt that way because we were teaching them how to positively reinforce and positively talk to themselves.
That's important. A lot of them are signing big contracts the next year and they could just easily blow all that money. Correct. And this, the simple things of like, okay, what kind of player do you want to be? What kind of man do you want to be? You know, and getting behind a wheel after drinking, like things like that, trying to prevent because,
during that phase the number one thing i found was peers drive bad decisions you are so subject to peer pressure if your peers say it's but the old school right if a peer says jump off the bridge are you gonna jump off the bridge right and like in that age you have to be really strong in your convictions because if you're not you're gonna jump Right. You know what I mean? Absolutely.
You're more influenceable, right? Correct. That's it. Influenceable. That's a good word. Yes. You're giving all this phenomenal advice to these players. Meanwhile, you're battling your own demons. Oh, was I battling? My God. What was going on behind the scenes? Um, you know, I was getting these migraines, these really bad headaches and, uh, the doc, uh,
after about two years of writing all kinds of different you know blood thinners let's try this let's try that they wrote me oxy damn for headaches yeah and it worked jeez like i could coach all day and my headache wouldn't hurt i didn't have to hold back i could it was from like yelling and it would be like a vice between my temples and uh It worked. But the doc told me, hey, this is addictive.
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Chapter 4: What leadership techniques were effective in Coach Cochran's career?
I mean, come on. I'm the head strength coach at Alabama. I've got two national championships. I'm strength coach of the year. Like I'm hitting financial positions in life. Like I'm winning and we're winning on the field. I'm not gonna get addicted, right? Like not me. I'm the mental conditioning, mental and physical conditioning coach. Like I'm tough. That got me, it got me bad.
It got me so bad that by 2015, I was snorting the pills. Yeah. Is it more like effective when you snort it?
Well, in my addict brain, Because I was getting migraines here, I thought if it went there, it would get there faster. But it was really just, it got to my brain faster. You know what I mean? The buzz got there faster. I can give you the excuse of what I use to tell myself, but the reality was is that I really... Enjoyed it. And it let me coach all day. And no one ever knew until I overdosed.
Oh, you didn't tell anyone? No. So you were taking it every day for five years? 10 years. 10 years? Yeah. Holy crap. And I got up to about 50 pills a day. What? Yeah. And it was all fentanyl at the end. Oh my God. The fact that your body can handle that's insane.
It's nuts. It makes, that's why I'm doing this. Right. And that's why I'm here. You know, like I'm not supposed to be here. I overdosed. My wife found me dead. Like all this, all the accomplishments. You know, who cares? Wow. You know, so now I want to help others.
That's incredible, man. Yeah, man. I'm sure a lot. Well, coaching is a stressful job, first of all. So I'm sure a lot of coaches are dealing with some sort of addiction behind the scenes, right?
Yes, for sure. And it's hidden until it's not, right? It's hidden until they do a press conference and they're slurring their words. You know, it's hidden until, oh, shoot, he got a DUI. You know, it's hidden until... things start happening at the house, you know? And then all of a sudden it's gone.
Nuts. So your wife had no idea or Saban had no idea? No clue. Were you kind of like feeling shame about telling people? Very much.
I did not, I couldn't stop. Like I could not stop. I wanted to, I was sick of it. I wasn't getting a buzz anymore. After about the fifth, sixth year, it wasn't for a buzz. It was so that I wouldn't be sick. So it was, this is the scary part in addiction. It was every single day. Because if there's a day without it, you feel like you have the flu. And as in the job I had, there was no days off.
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Chapter 5: How did Coach Cochran's addiction develop and impact his life?
No. That was my coolest offer. That was the best one. Wow. Did you have to think about that one? I'm not a big fan of the cold and I'm not a big baseball guy. And I think to be a strength coach for baseball, you have to love baseball. It's a different type of strength training too. Yes. It's not full body like football. Right. Exactly right. But you did have an NBA stint, right?
Yep. I did three years in the NBA. I was with the New Orleans Hornets, who are the Pelicans now. I had really good players. Was that with Chris Paul? Chris Paul. Yeah. His rookie year. I had him his rookie year and his second year. David West, Tyson Chandler, J.R. Smith. Nice. And Peja Stojakovic, one of my favorites. Those are some hoopers right there. Yeah, man. We had a good squad.
How'd you like that compared to football? It was easy. Really? Yeah. I mean, you go from 130 players to 15. I mean, you were tired because of the late nights after games flying to the next city. But you developed real relationships with players. Mm-hmm. And so you could really help them get through bumps and bruises.
You could help them when they were struggling with, even if it was a financial thing, you know, cause they weren't used to having the money and didn't know how to handle this. And, had agents pulling at them, you know, you got to really develop relationships.
So it was, it was a great job. That's cool. Well, you've done that with your college players too, because we met through one of your former players. It's cool that you're still talking with your old college. Always, always. I got, uh, I actually got to go, uh, visit Henry rugs while I was here. Nice. Oh, and that was, uh, man, that was,
it was tough yeah yeah yeah what happened with him so he was he was a wide receiver here at the raiders and got uh killed somebody in a car oh i saw this yeah drunk driving right driving damn yeah so uh we did all the had to go through all the different hoops security and all that to go see him And, man, he's just tough. He's tough. Crazy that one decision can change your life so much.
And to see the progression, I can't wait for people to hear his story when he is able to tell it, you know? Oh, yeah? Yeah. Yeah, because no one's ever heard his side, actually. The media just painted their side. Right. And what got him there, right? And how easily and how quickly it can happen to anybody. Yeah.
So yeah, when he gets, when he's available, he's going to jump in with my organization for sure. I'm going to grab him, you know? Yeah. Did you, did you have a good eye for talent when you were coaching? Like, did you know certain people were going to take off? I did.
I feel like I can read people really well off kind of in early. Sometimes I'm way wrong and I get played. So I've had to figure that out. But yeah, I can see talent growing. you know, everybody talks about what's the most athletic, you know, sport and all. And to me it's basketball. Really?
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