Former CU quarterback Joel Klatt said ousted Southern Cal coach Steve Sarkisian is a “really nice guy” and hopes he will get well. (Root Sports)
Former Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt expressed sympathy for ousted Southern Cal coach Steve Sarkisian and described his own battle with alcohol.
“It’s a powerful sickness,” Klatt said. “I just want Steve to get well.”
Klatt said his first problem with alcohol happened when he was a teenager playing minor league baseball, and it was one of the reasons he quit baseball and enrolled at CU. He said his second bout with problem drinking was after he left football. Klatt was at CU from 2002-05.
“My exit from being an athlete, I had my identity tied up in that,” Klatt said. “From ’05 to ’07 to ’08, I dealt with it again. I just kind of swore it off. I’ve been four years sober now. One of the reasons is because, if you allow that into your life, it starts to control you.”
Klatt described a night in minor league baseball when he was still “severely hung over” from drinking the night before.
“I remember in the batter’s box, thinking to myself, ‘If I swing and miss, I’m probably going to throw up.’ I went 4-for-4 and I only swung the bat four times. I knew I was going to swing and throw up if I didn’t make contact.
“I knew then that I had to leave baseball.”
Klatt walked on at CU but “fell right back into the pattern of tying my identity to athletics. Then, when you stop playing, all of a sudden you don’t know who you are. In hindsight, I started to drink to kind of numb those senses.”
