Desmond Bryant, a former NFL defensive tackle who went undrafted out of Harvard in 2009 before carving out a starting role with the Oakland Raiders, is telling a story that had no public ending for a long time. In a sit-down with CBS Mornings’ journalist David Begnaud on “Beg-Knows America,” the 40-year-old opened up about the alcohol and drug addiction that ran quietly alongside his professional career.
Bryant told Begnaud he has been sober for two years and is now mentoring incoming NFL players about the dangers he personally ignored. The interview touched on the 2013 viral mugshot that became one of the more discussed off-field moments in recent league memory, as highlighted by CBS Mornings on X.
How a South Beach Arrest Set the Stage for Bryant’s Long Road to Sobriety
The events of February 24, 2013, started at a South Beach nightclub. Bryant blacked out. His friends called a taxi, but the driver left him at the wrong address, and police were called.
The mugshot that followed, eyes half-shut and tongue hanging out, spread across social media within hours. Late-night hosts picked it up. It became one of the more memorable off-field NFL images of that year.
Bryant was days away from signing a five-year, $34 million contract with the Cleveland Browns when the arrest happened. The deal still went through on March 12, 2013, with $15 million guaranteed.
Oct 19, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; A general view of Cleveland Browns helmets before the game between the Browns and the Miami Dolphins at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Oct 19, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; A general view of Cleveland Browns helmets before the game between the Browns and the Miami Dolphins at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images
Former NFL player Desmond Bryant’s life unraveled after a viral mugshot in 2013 resulted in him losing a contract with the Cleveland Browns and years of addiction that left him struggling to find purpose beyond football.
Now sober, Bryant tells @DavidBegnaud that he has rebuilt… pic.twitter.com/gl6QHfgBXx
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 6, 2026
That decision made things worse. Bryant has said the team’s willingness to move forward anyway reinforced his belief that his drinking was not actually a problem.
“Here I am, this Christian guy who wanted to always make God proud and all the things I wanted to do. But yet as an NFL player, someone who’s trying to party and be successful in this world, I was doing a lot of things that weren’t aligned with my true self,” Bryant told WPLG Local 10.
In Cleveland, a team strength coach once told him directly he smelled of alcohol. According to his own account, Bryant described NFL culture as treating heavy drinking like an extension of team life, which made it easy to push past warning signs.
His career in Cleveland deteriorated gradually. An irregular heartbeat discovered in 2013 required surgery. A torn pectoral muscle in 2016 gave the Browns grounds to void the remaining $13 million on his contract.
He was released in August 2017. Without football, Bryant has described feeling lost in a way the game had always helped him avoid. The drinking did not stop with the career.
Getting sober started taking shape in 2023, when he began practicing yoga. A pose called Shavasana, requiring total stillness, forced a confrontation he had avoided for years. His mind kept running. That was the moment he finally admitted something was genuinely wrong.
Bryant is now mentoring NFL players directly, pointing to warning signs he overlooked in himself for years.
Bryant going public now, with his name and face attached to it, is how he starts closing it.