Robert Gallery was the second overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. By 2019, twenty years of head trauma had left him in a daily fog of brain damage, rage and alcohol.
Robert played offensive line at Iowa and then for the Raiders. He retired in 2012 and lost the schedule, the routine and the identity at once, while the fog he had played through kept getting worse. Brain scans, a neurologist and hyperbaric chambers did not move the needle. Then he heard veterans talk about ibogaine and flew to Tijuana. He credits a psychedelic-assisted therapy protocol with taking away the rage and the fog.
Mark “Slider” Keller joined us. He is a former Navy pilot who guides veterans and first responders through that protocol. My co-host Mark “Moose” McGrath was with us too. Slider explains why he now calls ibogaine an oneirogen, a substance that produces a dreamlike state, with psychedelic side effects.
Recovery
My through line is recovery. I lay out the flow model of struggle, release, flow and recovery, and I argue that recovery is where football, fighter aviation and most of corporate life fail. Robert describes what the game felt like when everything slowed down and he already knew where the defender was going. He had no name for it then. I call it orientation, the center of John Boyd’s real OODA loop. It is the same state Robert has worked to get back to since.
Playing hurt
We also cover the culture of playing hurt, alcohol as the only recovery tool anyone offered, and perfectionism over one bad play out of seventy-six. Robert built Athletes for Care to bring what the veteran community learned to athletes still suffering in silence.
This episode is not medical advice. Ibogaine is a Schedule I substance in the United States and is dangerous without medical screening and supervision. If you are a veteran in crisis, call 988 and press 1, or text 838255. Anyone else can call or text 988.
Who on your team needs a recovery plan more than a training plan?
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Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.