The Real 'Jerry Maguire' Leigh Steinberg Seeks To Make His Way Back From Alcoholism

Tom Cruise was the star of the major hit film Jerry Maguire that was released in 1998. The movie also served as the launching pad for the career of then unknown actress Renee Zellweger, who played the love interest. Jerry Maguire was about the life of a sports agent who has a nervous breakdown and seeks to rebuild his life by exposing the dishonesty in his business. It’s based on the life story of real life sports agent Leigh Steinberg. While the film has a happy ending, in real life finding a happy ending is not always so easy. Recently, Leigh Steinberg has revealed that he has struggled greatly with an alcohol addiction.
Alcoholism Can Affect Anyone
Leigh Steinberg was considered a “Super Agent,” a sports agent who dealt with millions of dollars and high-profile people. But even he struggled with alcoholism throughout his life. Alcohol addiction is a great equalizer, in that it is a disease that people across all economic groups and age ranges suffer from. At his peak, Leah Steinberg’s clientele offered a veritable who’s who of sport stars, such as:

• Howie Long
• Troy Aikman
• Ben Roethlisberger
• Warren Moon

Steinberg reportedly made over 100 million dollars in his storied career, which surely seems enough to have been enough money for anyone to live on. But a decade later, Steinberg was broke, divorced, and a hardcore alcoholic.
Giving Up
What characterized Leigh Steinberg’s severe state of alcoholism was completely giving up on everything in his life, and spending hours drinking. Recently divorced, he would spend countless hours drinking, even being arrested for public drunkenness and floated through different rehab centers in fruitless attempts to recover his sobriety. He was also millions of dollars in debt, owing back rent, and money to a laundry list of people, including the IRS. People who are severe alcoholics are known for disappearing days at a time, usually to feed their addiction without anyone to stop them. This is often because the alcoholic is trying to escape from the realities of a life that he finds unbearable to face on a daily basis.
Seeking Sobriety
To Leigh Steinberg’s credit he says that after hitting the lowest point in his life personally, professionally, and financially, he has achieved sobriety for two years. He found success by attending a sober living program, and has focused solely on becoming sober. This was a tremendous achievement in itself, and once again shows how sobriety can be achieved when an individual is dedicated to a program of care for recovery.
Hopefully now, Leigh Steinberg can focus on pulling the rest of his life together. He wants to start a career comeback, which means becoming certified again as a sports agent, which he had allowed to lapse. This also means starting to pay back the debts he has accrued to various people. And most of all it means trying to re-connect with his children again. He has already overcome a giant hurdle in reclaiming his sobriety, after finding a treatment program that worked for him.

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Cindy Nichols is an addiction treatment counselor helping people recovery from alcoholism at Recovery Now TV.