Here is a word for word recollection of Ben Cousins first press conference involving questions from the media, held at Anthony Mundine’s gym in Redfern. The ‘KO to drugs’ forum was attended by Cousins, Mundine, Bulldogs rugby league player Sonny-Bill Williams and Olympic gold medalist Nova Peris.
Cousins: Obviously I believe in the cause for ‘KO for drugs’. I wanted to be here today, because I’m somebody who through my issue has been very high profile and, um, I am someone that’s lost my livelihood, or the thing that I’ve enjoyed doing most, and probably more so than that, hurt a lot of the people that are close to me, you know family and friends.
And for whatever reason, I’m an educated person, I went through school, I knew all along I didn’t condone what I was doing, but I could justify it. At the end of the day, I ran the gauntlet. But at the same time, there’s a lack of public awareness for a majority of people who find themselves in my situation, where I deep down don’t think I really had a choice, in terms of the very things that make me a great footballer, are some of the things that led me to fall into sort of those traps.
From a medical point of view, drug addiction is an illness. It isn’t easy for people who haven’t experienced it to get their head around. So, I guess, over time, you know, I’m not going to be the first footballer to be in this position, I’m not going to be the first high profile person. Australian rules footballers aren’t the only ones using recreational drugs, there’d be a stack of people in all walks of life.
Question: How are you and how tough has is been?
Cousins: I’m good. Life’s good. I’m in a good place. In terms of rehab, it’s an ongoing process. You don’t, I guess, get to a point where you’re completely over it.
In terms of how tough it is, I get asked that a lot. The last 12 to 18 months, I don’t like to use the word ‘tough’, I’d rather describe it as something that’s required my full attention every minute of every day, to stay on top of.
Question: Take it back to football. Is there any chance you’ll play football anywhere this year?
Cousins: Probably not competitively, but I’m not sure. I’m training a lot, keeping myself in very good nick. I’m not sure how I’ll feel until probably the games start. But I’d like to think at some point I’d at least train with a WAFL or VFL side, just to see how the body is ticking over, if I thought that’s what I wanted to do next year.
Question: Are you talking to anybody at the moment?
Cousins: No. It’s hypothetical.
The last thing I wanted to say is I wanted to apologise for not being able to go into depth (with) my issue at the moment. Today is not about me, but there will come a time when I can be in a position to go into detail, you know, about how it all came about. I’m not ashamed, or embarrassed, to say I have a drug, or had, a drug problem. For a lot of people they don’t choose to do it, in a lot of ways it choose them.
Thanks very much for turning up. Happy days. That exhibition fight was supposed to be against Sonny-Bill Williams, but I’ve seen how big he is today, so it’s been scrapped. Ha Ha!
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