Why we should be rooting for Mike Richards

Mike Richards is back in the NHL and not everyone is pleased. I learned that after writing about him last week, learned that there are still people out there who don't understand the paradox of famous and favorite athletes becoming addicts while trying to play through the pain and injury the job often entails.

People who don't understand oxycodone.

So here are some numbers:

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the number of overdose deaths attributed to prescription drugs has nearly doubled over the last 10 years.  This alone is alarming, but coupled with the monstrous spike in heroin-related deaths, it's morbidly breathtaking.

The narrative that Richards became a drug addict because he partied too much conveniently ignores how oxycodone usually finds the hands of an athlete. Through injury first, playing through injury after that.

Even as a young man with the Flyers, Richards was known to play hurt. While he has yet to discuss his arrest last June because of a pending hearing and possible trial, he clearly had to satisfy both the league and the Washington Capitals – who gave him a pro-rated $1 million contract – that he was drug-free.

Let's hope so. Because even if he's never more than the ham-and-egger that he continually is, it would make for a happy ending.