I Had to Make a Difference

     Several years had passed since Ronnie’s sad and lonely death but with the dawn of every day I became more obsessed with the cause and circumstances of his demise, but even more so, about how to use his death as a positive factor in preventing others from falling into the same pathetic, miserable trap that took his life.

     As difficult as I knew it would be, I had to write his story because I knew just how miserable he was and I knew about the daily firestorms that besieged this former football star. I watched him deteriorate from a fine tuned athlete into someone who literally gave up on life, lost all self-worth, self-esteem, self-control, his family, his identify and then his tormented life to ALCOHOL, the demon that ultimately consumed him.

     Although I had completed the manuscript of RONNIE, I knew the task would not be finished until I developed a program that would give me the opportunity to take his true story to every young person in America through the book or in person. Often times I direct my message toward student-athletes simply because they are frequently looked up to, emulated so to speak, by many students. However, make no mistake about it, this message is meant for every youth, every teenager and every young adult across America as well as their parents and grandparents.

     Ronnie’s story is of a person who forfeited his life to ALCOHOL ABUSE that began with casual, social drinking in high school. After all the glory days of college football were no more, the curse left him an empty shell of a man who was convinced there remained no real purpose for his life.