Unbuilding with Jeff Hatch

Unbuilding with Jeff Hatch

How do individuals from all walks of life battle addiction? This conversation between former NFL player Jeff Hatch and Coach Blu Robinson gives a raw, honest look at how identity, success, and substance use can collide – and how they can be rebuilt, or rather *unbuilt*, into something healthier. Jeff talks about growing up as the “big kid”, being pushed into sport, and eventually landing in the NFL after a late-blooming football career and an Ivy League education.

On paper it looked perfect: “I created full identities based around other people’s ideas of who I was,” he says. But injuries, back surgery and powerful painkillers led to opioid addiction, multiple overdoses, and eventually federal charges tied to his substance use disorder. Instead of hiding, Jeff leans into radical honesty. He explains how being in recovery forced him to ask, “Who am I when no one cares?

Who am I when no one’s watching?” That questioning became the root of his programme and book, *Unbuilt*, which focuses on stripping back false identities to the “studs and foundation” underneath, rather than simply trying to rebuild on a shaky frame. You’ll hear Jeff and Blu talk about stigma, especially around men and high achievers, and how addiction often masks a “highly sensitive” person trying to cope with the world.

They emphasise community, daily spiritual and physical routines, and the importance of being useful and helpful rather than just chasing personal comfort. There’s plenty here for anyone in recovery, their families, or people supporting loved ones: identity work, relapse, surgery and pain management without narcotics, parenting in recovery, and protecting the “home team” so children grow up feeling safe and seen.

If you’ve ever felt like your life looks fine on the outside but cracked underneath, Jeff’s idea that you sometimes have to unbuild before you can truly rebuild might be exactly what you need to hear today.