Thread: How 'Intervention' helped save Vance Johnson's destructive life -- and mine

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of self-harm, domestic violence and drug and alcohol use.

VANCE JOHNSON LEANS in real close, right up against his Zoom screen, and yanks his left sleeve up. His shirt says "Own Your Sobriety," and he is owning his sobriety right now. "Can you see this?" he asks.

The former Broncos receiver, part of the famed "Three Amigos" of the John Elway-era Denver teams, is holding up his forearm, where there's a horrific scar in the shape of a "C." He says he carved it into his arm with a knife one night when he was in yet another haze of drugs and alcohol. That night, he was in agony, again, and he just felt like he couldn't deal with another day. He'd hurt himself badly enough that he ended up in a coma, and awoke two weeks later to find he'd barely survived. Doctors had to transplant parts of his thigh to repair the deep damage he'd done to his arm.

He holds it up now, 12 years later, as a symbol of all the pain -- the pain he caused himself, the pain he caused to others. There was a lot to go around. He has been divorced eight times, had more affairs than he can remember, admitted to domestic violence in the past and is still working his way back into the lives of his six children. "I was a horrible man," he says.

rest - very long - https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...tive-life-mine

Saw that article earlier.

I'm glad he got his life together.

he debuted March 15 as a counselor on A&E's new season of the show "Intervention." He's the lead interventionist in the next episode, premiering Monday at 10 p.m. ET.

It's actually a really good show, if you all haven't ever watched it.

Really weird memory just came up reading this, but waaay back in the day around 1994-96 I worked part time at the Mile High Greyhound Park in Commerce City. I'd work with the dogs on the track in the summer and in the party/commissary department in the offseason. Vance Johnson was a regular there, and it wasn't rare to see him up in the sports bar or VIP lounge betting on dogs and just getting drunk as hell all day most weekends and even some weeknights. It was kind of weird seeing him like that, but he was always nice to me when I would bus his area but being a big Broncos fan it was a bummer to see one of your heroes like that. Glad he got things turned around!

On a lighter note, I also served former Nuggets coach Doug Moe a lot back then as well, and that dude was cool as hell. I kind of miss that weird ass job. That place is being turned into a big shopping complex now.