The James Logan Courier

By Joseph Agharanya, Courier Staff Writer

Guy Mclntyre, a former Forty-Niner player, inspired students with his personal life story on Tuesday. He came to Logan to tell his personal life story on how drugs affected and almost ruined his life and playing career. He is now challenging students in America to live their lives for a higher purpose, that is, other than “getting high” and “chasing girls” as he put it.

Mclntyre opened up his speech and said, “I Love sports … I grew up close to my high school stadium … I could hear the band playing and see the lights … and I soon began to love the game of football.”
Mclntyre then told the students of how he grew up in Thomasville, Georgia, a small town where everyone knew each other. It was there that he said he first got introduced to some things that became a bad influence on his life. He became a drug user, and abused alcohol because it was so easily available in his community. He first started using cigarettes by the time he was in junior high school, and he continued to use drugs from then on in his pre high school years.

He said, “By the time I was in seventh or eighth grade I began to smoke marijuana.” However, it was also while he was in junior high school that he was introduced to football. He said, “The coach asked me if I wanted to play the game, and I said yeah I’d love to play football.”

Mclntyre started playing football in high school, and by the time he was in his senior year he became an all American. But he was still using drugs, and even began to drink alcohol during high school and even drank and smoked while in school. At the same time, he was also doing sports football and basketball. Sports had become a positive influence on him, and despite his drug use he continued to go to school just to go to practice, and that motivated him.

He said, “Sports was the thing that brought me to school everyday. I knew that I had to go to school to go play sports. Sports also became the incentive that I needed to go to college.”

Mclntyre realized though that it would have to be either drugs or football. He got many scholarships and went to Georgia to continue playing football for college. There he had a roommate whom he said became a positive influence on his life. Keith, his roommate, told him about his belief in God and that there is someone higher whom he can look up to if he gets discouraged. But Mclntyre was not about to fall into religion, he continued playing football and also doing what he wanted. He did not make the choice yet to stop doing drugs, because as he puts it Georgia was within the top ten party schools in America, and he was going to “play football, get high, and chase girls.”

Mclntyre continued on doing football and went into the NFL and in his rookie year he became a participant in the Superbowl Championships and ended up winning. When the season was over he went back to his home town to party and celebrate. He could have anything he wanted and he did just that with the money he got from the NFL. Yet it was during this time in the off season, that he knew he could not keep doing drugs if he wanted to continue to play football.

He called his coach that night to be sent to a drug rehabilitation center, and in his mind he looked up to change his ways. Mclntyre continued his NFL career and became a three time super bowl champion, a 5 time participant in the pro bowl selections, a 3 time participant in the all-pro selections, and 13 year NFL veteran. Now he is dedicated to challenging students to live their lives for a higher purpose by sharing his story which is not really different from many star high school athletes who use drugs behind the closed curtains.