- Nacua was in rehab in March and April for alcohol use.
- He said he turned to alcohol to avoid confronting the stress of NFL stardom and fatherhood.
- A therapist suggested Nacua journal to finish his vivid dreams that never have endings.
- Nacua talked about how he hopes he will be seen by his infant son.
Puka Nacua’s tumultuous offseason ended Thursday night with five catches in the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia, but before taking the field he spoke about his decision to enter an alcohol rehab facility last spring.
Netflix host Elle Duncan spoke with Nacua before the streaming service carried San Francisco’s 27-7 win over the former BYU receiver’s Los Angeles Rams. She billed the interview as an exploration of a “pretty complicated offseason and what comes next.”
Nacua shared what he learned about the reasons for his struggle with alcohol, from sudden fame to being a new father.
Nacua’s attorney Levi McCathern announced on April 1 that Nacua had been in rehab for “a substantial period of time ... and he’s scheduled to be there for a while longer,” according to The California Post.
“I learned I’m very avoidant of conflict,” Nacua told Duncan, “which is very interesting due to the football nature. I’d like to say I play very physical. Just avoidant of the things I know were causing me stress.”
Nacua, 25, has risen to become one of the NFL’s best players after being just a fifth-round draft pick out of BYU in the 2023 NFL draft. He told Duncan that the lifestyle of such stardom has been a stressor on him, as has becoming a father 10 months ago.
“I would kind of isolate myself to feel like the weight of all the issues and things I had was stuck on my shoulders and not being willing to ask for help,” Nacua told Duncan. “I was never one to share my fears or my worries. I was always finding different ways to escape I guess from that tension or that stress.”
He told Duncan that in particular, he turned to alcohol to help him cope with those stressors.
“Just kind of drowning myself so that the issues and the stress that I was feeling never had the opportunity to be addressed, but right when I entered the rehabilitation center, I was able to have open and honest conversations,” he said.
He reflected on the impact he wants this experience to have on the way he helps raise his infant son.
“I’m looking forward most to becoming a person that I think my son will be proud of,” he said. “These are the darkest times that I’ve had in my life, and as my son gets older, I can share with him some of the things I learned from the mistakes that I’ve made.
“I want to be able to go to any environment that he might be a part of and have him say, ‘This is my dad.’”
Duncan said Nacua told her that he has vivid dreams that never have an ending. A therapist suggested that he finish them himself, giving them the ending he wants through journaling.
Netflix co-host Michael Irvin talked about his own substance-abuse issues and said he tells people that to remember they “can’t have great growth in your profession without working on great growth in your person because you’re running from problems.”
Nacua previously made similar comments and reflected on his difficult offseason when in June he spoke to reporters for the first time after being in rehab, as the Deseret News reported.
