Find Out What This Former NFL Player Endorces
VIDEO: Wise Words From Kyle Turley. Watch Informative Video Below..
Turley is widely remembered for what occurred on November 4, 2001 in the Louisiana Superdome. The Saints were trailing the New York Jets 16-9 late in the fourth quarter, but were driving deep into opposition territory. After a scramble, quarterback Aaron Brooks was tackled at the four-yard line where Jets defender Damien Robinson viciously grabbed his facemask and started to bend Brooks backwards. Turley proceeded to grab Robinson’s hands and forced him to let go of Brooks, before picking him up by the facemask and tackling him to the ground as referees and players from both teams tried to separate them. Turley emerged from the ensuing scrum with Robinson’s helmet and proceeded to fling it across the field before giving an obscene gesture. Robinson and Turley received off-setting personal fouls for the initial incident, but Turley was ejected from the game and assessed an additional personal foul penalty for the obscene gesture, costing the Saints any chance at tying the game.
He said he has been taking painkillers and similar drugs since he blew out his knee at San Diego State but the real trouble began in his post-playing days, when he started taking “psych meds.” Turley said he’s dealing with a brain injury and takes the psychiatric medications to treat it, but adds he had his “lowest points in life” about eight months ago.
He was asked directly if his suicidal thoughts were a direct side effect of the medicine he was taking, or an effect of the pain not going away.
“No, 100 percent the side effect of those medications,” he responded. “Those things then, over years of use, well from initially being prescribed Wellbutrin the first time, maybe a week into taking that, I wanted to jump out of a third-story window of my house and my wife had to stop me one night. So I stopped taking that. Then went to Depakote, found great relief in Depakote, but the long-term use of that surfaced all these other problems. And depression, anxiety, light sensitivity got worse, and suicidal and homicidal tendencies became a part of my daily living, in that I couldn’t be around a knife in my kitchen without having an urge to stab someone, including my wife and kids. That was highly disturbing to me.
In September 2011 Turley launched his Gridiron Tail Gate Tour. Playing tail gates and local venues at numerous NFL and college football games, Turley is dedicating his tour to the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. Gridiron Records announced that one hundred percent of online sales for his sophomore album single “Fortune and Pain” will go to the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. Turley is also working with Chicago-based, charity-minded public relations strategist Christopher Foltz to raise awareness of both the Gridiron Greats and NFL injuries and post-career struggles for retirees.
“I remember vividly being at the induction, my Hall of Fame induction at San Diego State University. I was there by myself, my wife had to stay back with the kids in Tennessee. I found myself out on the balcony, to step out and get some air, and, you know, actually try to medicate with some cannabis, and I found as soon as I got out the door I wanted to jump off of the building. And if it weren’t for cannabis, I don’t think I would have made it back to my hotel room.”
Marijuana being talked about as a treatment for concussions is not new. Harvard psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon wrote an open letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last year and believes the medicine in marijuana can help.
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