Former NFL star Vance Johnson talks about addiction
HAMILTON » Former NFL wide receiver and Trenton native Vance Johnson talked about his problems with addiction and drug abuse Thursday evening as he urged a diverse audience to help tackle the national health epidemic.
“It’s taking us hostage and we have to do something about it, and it starts here and it starts today,” Johnson said. “Don’t let your life crash. Don’t die. Let that addiction or that death be something that lifts you up and gives you the power in the street to say, ‘It’s going to stop here. I’m going to be the one to break that chain.’”
Johnson is an ex-Denver Bronco who played in three Super Bowls over the course of his 10-year NFL career. He served as the special guest speaker Thursday during Mercer County’s observance of International Overdose Awareness Day.
Law-enforcement officials, politicians, recovery advocates, and everyday local residents attended the event at Veterans Park in Hamilton to remember those who have died from fatal overdoses and to recognize that such deaths are preventable.
Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri addressed the dozens of people in attendance at the candlelight vigil, saying that “heroin and opioids are everywhere” and that “we will never arrest or prosecute our way out of addiction. We have to recognize it for what it is: It is a disease, and it is a disease that if we work together we can help to combat.”
“Addressing and defeating addiction is a priority for all of us,” said Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede, who delivered a speech at the event talking about various misperceptions concerning addiction.
“Let’s not let misperception ever convince us that this is a battle that we cannot ever triumph over by working together,” Yaede said, “and let us never, ever let misperception devalue the purpose and worth of anyone’s life based upon the type of disease they suffer from.”
Other elected officials, including Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson, State Sen. Linda Greenstein, Mercer County freeholders and members of Hamilton Council, attended the event.
Onofri, the county prosecutor, said his office in 2016 seized 13,213 decks of heroin and an additional 9.3 pounds of raw heroin, all of which was collectively valued on the street at $1 million. He said overdose fatalities are preventable and thanked Johnson for coming to the vigil.
The prosecutor cited Johnson’s achievements on the gridiron and said, “Despite all of his accolades on the football field, I think he will tell you that his biggest success is that he is now four years clean and sober.”
Johnson played for the University of Arizona before being drafted in the second round of the 1985 NFL Draft. He retired in 1995 and advocates for retired athletes recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.