BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Hello, I'm Katie Smith and welcome along to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

I'm in California for Super Bowl 60 with a bonus episode of the podcast I host, Not By the Playbook,

which you can find more of wherever you found this podcast.

I speak to people who've overcome remarkable challenges,

like former NFL rookie of the year Leonard Russell,

who reached the very top and then lost everything to addiction.

He found redemption, though, and recovery,

and now guides others through that difficult journey.

Music and now guides others through that difficult journey. San Francisco, this undulating city of Steve Hills and trolleybuses, the city famous for its

Golden Gate Bridge, and for Alcatraz, the prison you can't escape from.

A city of contrast, a hub of counterculture. It was here exactly 70 years ago, the beat poet Alan

Ginsburg pushed back against the mainstream, defied to be different, and published his controversial poem, Howl.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness. And nobody knows that better than former

Patriot Rookie of the Year, Leonard Russell. I started to lose things. First thing went with the

house, you know, lost that job,

separated from my wife at the time because she had had enough hanging around people that I normally

wouldn't hang around with and I didn't know how to stop that cycle. I saw the best minds of my

generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked.

Our version of our way was with a sailboat in the grenadines on a deserted island with no

clothes on.

Our boat captain had his boxers on and his sailing cap and it was beautiful and there was no stress and no clothes

...