 My name is Darren Waller. I play tight end for the New York Giants. The partnership with Hackensack Meridian Health came about pretty organically. I've seen the emphasis they're putting on behavioral health, mental health, substances of abuse, and that's something that is my journey, my story, my experience, and to be able to partner with Hackensack Meridian is a pretty cool thing. My journey with drugs and alcohol started with painkillers probably when I was like 15 years old. It provided like the sense of peace because there's thoughts revving a thousand miles per hour in my head, anxieties, doubts, negative self-talk. That was like my escape from that. By using lasted 10 years, not until overdosing did I even take a step back to that point. There was nothing that I wouldn't throw under the bus or compromise to keep using, you know, because I got suspended from football in college twice, in the league twice, relationships deteriorating, not prioritizing anything school-related. The only place I felt safe was when I was high. I overdosed on painkillers a month before my 25th birthday and almost took my life, so that was enough at that point in time. I was just trying to convince myself that going to rehab is something that I should try. Football was a very distant thought at that time. I went to a 30-day treatment after a four-day detox and it changed my life from there. I haven't used since. I've been sober just over six years. My clean date is August 12, 2017. I'm very blessed that I've had the recovery impact in my life the way that it has. It was just a breath of fresh air, you know, learning how to meditate, being opened up to journaling, therapy, you know, things like that, to where I can really heal, I can really get to the root of things because the drugs and the alcohol at the end of the day are just a symptom of what's really going on inside of me. I was able to get like a real reset, just to go back in it with a purpose and ultimately that purpose being bigger than stats or whatever I could do for myself but really like being given a platform to speak positively and speak vulnerably so that other people could maybe have a chance to benefit from it or be impacted by it. There's nothing wrong with you being where you are. It's just a matter about what are we willing to do on moving forward and just being patient with that process. There are better times ahead if you stay the course. I don't know what the future holds for me, whether it be through speaking, whether it be through foundation work, continuing with hack and tag community and trying to help people. That's what I want to be about, that's what I want to be known for, that's what my legacy would be, being with people in their struggle and their life is going to get so much better and I know that because mine has.