Hitting rock-bottom

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Sean Salisbury

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sean Salisbury made a mistake and then doubled down with a lie. When the cards were dealt his career was pushed across the felt and soon he was broke, divorced, unemployable and drifting deep into depression.

Salisbury was a pro football championship quarterback and then a top flight broadcaster with ESPN. Fame, money and all the trappings of big time American success that were flushed down the toilet of life when he got a little into the bag and made a mistake with his cellphone.

Winnipeggers will remember Salisbury for his time with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers when he led the club to a Grey Cup championship in 1988 under coach Mike Riley.

"That season was one of my best in my football career. When my agent first said I could go to Canada to play I thought it was beneath me," said the 48-year-old Salisbury, here in Indy to try and reconnect with the media power brokers that he once considered his peers. "But I went and then I met Mike and I will tell you that he and Tony Dungy were the greatest men and influences that I ever had in my career. I won in my first year up there and it got me back to the NFL."

Salisbury left Winnipeg to sign with the Minnesota Vikings and spent parts of six more seasons in the NFL before moving to the broadcast booth, where he enjoyed 12 years with ESPN in a high-profile broadcast career.

All that ended in 2008 when ESPN elected not to renew his contract amid allegations Salisbury had shown a lewd picture of himself to other employees. Salisbury continued to deny the incident even after his dismissal before finally coming clean in 2010. Salisbury, who says he is 35 pounds overweight, is looking for redemption. He says he's hit rock-bottom and says he owns his mistakes but when he talks about the end of his time at ESPN he doesn't quite accept the way it all went down.

"I've spent six years paying for that mistake," he said on Wednesday, sitting across from me at a table in the midst of Radio Row at Super Bowl. "Did I do it? Yes. Did I lie about it? Yes. I was ashamed. It was stupid. I'm not pooh-poohing it away but I don't think I should have been fired. I was their lead analyst on TV six days a week. I should have taken a suspension for a week and I thought it would go away. But then it just ended. My life fell apart. The sad part for me was my identity was locked into my job. I couldn't recover for a long time."

In fact, Salisbury says he became addicted to painkillers and was reduced to staying in bed for days at a time.

"I would wake up crying. Wondering what had happened to my life," he said. "When I left ESPN, it was a very dark time for me. I didn't expect it. My father was dying at the same time and he was my best friend and hero. I lost my salary. I went through a divorce. I was basically ruined financially. The pain from my career, they had been burning nerves in my back and back to dull the pain for years, as well as the depression I was entering, I turned to pain pills. None of it helped. I basically spent three years in my house. I would leave for groceries or to see my kids. I thought I was hiding it from them but they're not stupid. I couldn't do anything."

Salisbury only recently got back on TV doing some college sports and regional work in Dallas.

"I should have been back in the game three years ago but I couldn't bounce back," he said. "But I'm feeling good now and most days are good ones. I'm going to make my way back. I won't say I took it for granted before but I just thought it was what I did. I'll be more proud when I get back. And I will."

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless

Gary Lawless, Winnipeg Free Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 2, 2012 D3