Honolulu Blues: How the Detroit Lions Helped Joel Walkowski Overcome Addiction and Rebuild His Life

Sep 8

Being a Detroit Lions fan hasn't always been easy.

For decades, Lions fans became accustomed to losing seasons, blown leads, disappointment, and the familiar feeling that maybe next year would finally be different.

For author Joel Walkowski, the struggles of the Detroit Lions became connected to something much bigger than football.

In his book, Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Football Team Created a Winning Man, Joel tells the story of growing up in Michigan, his complicated relationship with his father, his battles with addiction, financial hardship, recovery, and eventually learning how to take control of his own life.

The Detroit Lions are woven throughout the entire story.

As the franchise struggled, Joel struggled. As his life began to change, something interesting happened in Detroit too.

The Lions started winning.

It's a sports book, a recovery story, a memoir, and a personal development book wrapped into one. More than anything, it's a story about what can happen when someone finally decides to take ownership of where their life is going.

Joel Walkowski, the Detroit Lions and Honolulu Blues

Joel's connection to the Detroit Lions began through his father.

His father had experienced serious trauma early in life and also had special needs, which created a complicated dynamic as Joel grew up. Parenting didn't always come naturally to him, but football was something he could give his son.

That meant the Detroit Lions became more than a team.

They became part of Joel's relationship with his dad.

As Joel began writing Honolulu Blues, he realized there was an interesting parallel between the history of his family and the history of the franchise he'd spent his life following.

The Lions hadn't won a championship since 1957. Generations of fans had experienced disappointment while continuing to come back year after year.

Joel knew something about losing too.

His own struggles eventually included addiction, financial hardship, sleeping in a vehicle, and periods where simply getting through the day became a challenge.

In Honolulu Blues, those two stories move alongside each other.

The result is something much deeper than a book about football.

The Meaning Behind the Title Honolulu Blues

Even the title has a great piece of Detroit Lions history behind it.

Honolulu blue is the signature color of the Detroit Lions.

Joel explained on the Books4Guys Podcast that the team's original owner, George Richards, loved Hawaii. The connection became so important to the franchise that Honolulu blue became part of the team's identity.

For lifelong Lions fans, the title immediately means something.

But the word "blues" works on another level too.

This is a story about some incredibly difficult seasons of Joel's life.

Football becomes the thread connecting those seasons together.

Addiction Started Earlier Than Most People Realized

Joel's struggles with addiction began when he was young.

As a teenager, he was taking Adderall and began increasing the amount he used. The more he took, the more productive he became. His work improved, people noticed, and he received affirmation for what he was accomplishing.

That created a dangerous connection.

Joel began believing he could only feel good about himself when he was accomplishing something.

Eventually, alcohol entered the picture too.

He describes his first experience drinking alone after watching the Lions get crushed by Peyton Manning on Thanksgiving. What followed was roughly a decade where pills and alcohol became major parts of his life.

Eventually, the consequences became impossible to ignore.

Joel needed a different way to live.

What Recovery Actually Looked Like

One of the things I enjoyed most about my conversation with Joel was how practical he is when discussing recovery.

There's no attempt to make the process sound easy.

Joel eventually reached the point where quitting had to become his number one priority. He began working with a therapist and was introduced to SMART Recovery, a program he still helps facilitate today.

One of the biggest discoveries was realizing he wasn't alone.

Addiction can be incredibly isolating. People hide what they're experiencing because of shame, embarrassment, or the belief that nobody else will understand.

Then Joel began sitting in rooms with people who understood exactly what he was experiencing.

Things he had kept to himself for years could finally be discussed openly.

That sense of acceptance became part of his recovery.

It also forced Joel to begin doing something he hadn't done enough before:

Looking inward.

Men, Therapy and Asking for Help

This part of Joel's story is especially important for the Books4Guys audience.

For a long time, many men viewed asking for help as weakness.

You handled your problems yourself.

You didn't talk about addiction.

You didn't talk about mental health.

You definitely didn't tell everyone you were seeing a therapist.

Joel eventually realized that asking for help was one of the best decisions he could make.

He had spent years telling himself that today would finally be the day he quit drinking.

Then tomorrow came.

And the cycle started again.

Therapy helped him begin looking at his family history, his thought patterns, his addiction, and the reasons he kept returning to the same behaviors.

Recovery gave him a community where he didn't have to pretend he had everything figured out.

There is a lesson here that applies far beyond addiction.

Sometimes strength isn't proving you can handle everything yourself.

Sometimes strength is being willing to admit that what you're currently doing isn't working.

Building a Life That Makes Bad Decisions Harder

Joel shared one recovery strategy during our conversation that I thought was brilliant.

For years, watching the Lions meant being around environments where alcohol was available. Joel still wanted to watch football with friends, but he also understood the temptation that came with those situations.

So he created another commitment.

Basketball.

Joel loves playing basketball, so he began organizing games for Sunday afternoons after Lions games.

He could still watch football with friends.

But if he drank, he wouldn't be able to do one of his favorite things afterward.

Instead of relying entirely on willpower, he created a positive roadblock between himself and the behavior he was trying to avoid.

That philosophy has become part of how Joel approaches recovery.

If he knows a potentially difficult situation is coming, he creates a plan before he gets there.

He knows what has worked.

Then he sticks to the playbook.

That's an idea that can apply to almost any habit we're trying to change.

Don't just tell yourself you'll make the right decision when temptation arrives.

Build your life in a way that makes the better decision easier.

Rediscovering What You Actually Enjoy

Recovery also forced Joel to answer a surprisingly important question:

What do I actually enjoy doing?

Our culture gives us plenty of suggestions.

Drink.

Gamble.

Spend money.

Go out.

Find the next distraction.

But remove those things and you're left figuring out what actually makes your life enjoyable.

For Joel, the answers weren't complicated.

Basketball.

His dog.

Ice cream.

Spending time with people he cares about.

Football.

Writing.

Recovery wasn't simply about removing alcohol from his life. It became an opportunity to rebuild his life around things he genuinely valued.

That distinction matters.

It's difficult to eliminate a destructive habit when you leave an empty space behind.

Sometimes the better question is:

What can I build in its place?

From Nearly Nothing to a Life of Gratitude

Joel's story also includes periods of extreme financial hardship.

At one point, he purchased a dilapidated RV for around $1,500 but didn't have enough money to move it. He was across the country from the people he knew, struggling financially and living day to day.

He remembers not having enough money to drive certain distances because he wouldn't have been able to afford the tolls to return.

Those experiences don't completely disappear just because your circumstances improve.

Joel says the memory of having almost nothing has stayed with him.

But today, instead of allowing that memory to create fear, it has created something else:

Gratitude.

Sometimes understanding how far someone has come requires knowing where they started.

That's an important part of Honolulu Blues.

Why Joel Walkowski Wrote Honolulu Blues

Joel didn't casually decide one afternoon that writing a book sounded fun.

The project became a mission.

After beginning his recovery and working toward his master's degree, Joel was asked to think seriously about his goals.

What did he actually want to accomplish?

What would make him feel fulfilled?

Writing this book became one of the answers.

Joel went back and watched every Detroit Lions game from 1990 through the present as part of his research. He journaled by hand. At one point, those journals flew off the top of his car, were run over by a truck, and had to be recovered from a sewer.

He kept writing.

He worked on the second draft while sitting near his father's deathbed.

For roughly three years, Joel carved out hours before and after work and kept putting words on the page.

There wasn't some magical productivity system behind it.

He decided the book mattered.

Then he organized his time around that decision.

Decide What Matters and Build Your Life Around It

That idea became one of my biggest takeaways from talking with Joel.

Take a serious look at your life.

Ask yourself what actually matters.

Then look at how you're spending your time.

Do the two match?

Joel believes that once you identify your values, the next challenge is learning how to live in accordance with them.

For him, writing Honolulu Blues mattered.

His recovery mattered.

His father mattered.

Basketball mattered.

The people he loved mattered.

So he began intentionally building his life around those things.

It's simple.

That doesn't mean it's easy.

How Football Can Sneak Personal Development Into the Conversation

Joel had a great description for what he wanted Honolulu Blues to accomplish.

He wanted to write about sobriety and a man learning to take ownership of his interior life.

But he also wanted the book to be funny and entertaining.

His strategy?

Use football to sneak some personal development into the conversation.

I love that.

Personal development doesn't always have to feel like a lecture.

Sometimes the best lessons come through stories.

Sometimes they come through sports.

Sometimes they come from watching a football team lose over and over again until you realize their struggles are teaching you something about your own.

Joel wanted to create a book that could make readers laugh, make them cry, and make them think.

That's exactly the kind of book we love spotlighting through Books4Guys.

The Detroit Lions Finally Started Winning

There's another layer to this story that would have been difficult to script.

For most of Joel's life, the Detroit Lions represented losing.

Then Dan Campbell arrived.

The culture began changing.

The Lions started winning.

At roughly the same time, Joel's own life was changing.

He was taking recovery seriously. He was rebuilding his inner life. He was writing the book. And eventually, he was navigating the final chapter of his relationship with his father.

The team that had accompanied him through so many difficult seasons was finally giving him something different to experience.

Hope.

That's part of what makes Honolulu Blues such an interesting sports memoir.

The football isn't simply happening in the background.

The team becomes a way of understanding the larger story.

Who Should Read Honolulu Blues?

You don't need to be a Detroit Lions fan to appreciate this book.

You don't even need to be a huge football fan.

Honolulu Blues is for readers interested in addiction recovery, sobriety, men's mental health, family relationships, personal growth, resilience, sports, and stories about people rebuilding their lives.

Detroit and Lions fans will obviously find another layer to the story because they'll recognize the players, games, heartbreak, and history Joel describes.

But underneath the Honolulu blue uniforms is something universal.

Most of us know what it's like to lose.

Most of us know what it's like to carry things from our childhood into adulthood.

Most of us have habits we'd like to change, relationships we wish were different, or seasons where life didn't go according to plan.

The question is what we do next.

Honolulu Blues Is the Books4Guys Featured Book Partner of the Week

I'm excited to have Joel Walkowski and Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Football Team Created a Winning Man as this week's Books4Guys Featured Book Partner.

Joel's story represents a lot of what we're trying to encourage through Books4Guys.