Curt Schilling has been through more in recent years than most people.
The former Boston Red Sox pitcher saw $50 million go down the drain when his video game company, 38 Studios, went bankrupt, and he was diagnosed with mouth cancer in February. But he doesn’t want anyone to feel bad for him.
“I brought this on myself,” Schilling said in a revealing interview with ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan. “For the last two years, I’ve had to stand in front of my wife and kids and explain to them, ‘I lost $50 million and my company went bankrupt, and it was all my fault.’ Then I had to stand in front of them and tell them, ‘I have cancer because I dipped.’
“They are conversations I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
MacMullen’s story covers the lows in Schilling’s life, how he went from three-time World Series-winning pitcher to failed businessman and cancer patient in such a short span of time. Schilling’s struggles were so bad that he became depressed while undergoing the grueling cancer treatments.
“I always believed God gave us the tools to take care of ourselves,” Schilling said. “I was thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m depressed. It’s been a crappy few months, but I’ll bounce out of it.’ Only I didn’t. I was having a terrible effect on my wife and kids.”
Schilling is in remission and since has been treated for the depression, but MacMullen noted that the ex-hurler’s body has taken a toll. He’s thinner, and his voice isn’t as strong as it once was because of what radiation did to his throat and mouth.
But Schilling is taking it all in stride and is thankful to be alive.
“I’m lucky on so many levels,” Schilling said. “I look pretty much the same. It could have been so much worse.”
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Photo via Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
