Dan Davis is dying.
Davis, a former professional football player, contracted hepatitis C - a disease he said was nearly nine times as deadly as AIDS - from living the fast life.
Davis spoke candidly about his spiraling drug addictions, which charted his life's course toward contracting hepatitis C, Tuesday night in an auditorium full of fraternity members and other University students.
The crowd sat silent, almost as if in shock.
"[It was] all because of some choices I made," Davis said. "And I infected my wife and daughter. Some father I am - I stole their choice."
Davis said he was drafted to the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs in the 1980s, but his career fell short in professional football after drugs and alcohol got the best of him.
On the day he got his initiation letter from the Chiefs, Davis and some friends celebrated by getting drunk, he said. Davis jumped on the hood of the car while his friend was driving and the car crashed.
"It was supposed to be a joke, my friend would tell you now," Davis said, "I was in a coma for seven days. Some joke."
After that, Davis was arrested for drunk driving numerous times and almost got caught with $25,000 of cocaine.
"'You can't arrest him, this is Dan Davis,' my dad would tell the police," Davis said. "Then he'd bail me out. I thought I could get away with anything."
Davis said how looking back, he'd wish his father hadn't always been there for him.
"He wasn't doing me any favors," he said, "always bailing out his No. 1 son."
Davis went on to talk about his own son and how he practically failed him as a father.
"My son Jason, at 7 years old, wanted to be just like his daddy," he said. "I would do sit-ups and he would sit next to me doing them also."
But Davis said his addiction would take over while he was with Jason.
"I'd snort a line in front of my kid, and then I'd lick my finger and he'd pretend to snort one, too. And you know why he didn't get any? You know why my 7-year-old boy didn't get a line of coke?" Davis asked, practically yelling at the audience. "Because there wasn't enough for both us. I wanted it all for myself … sick."
By the end of the program, Davis's message was clear.
"If my son where here today, you know what he would say to you all, he'd say, 'I'm a cycle breaker,'" Davis said. "His father was an addict, his grandfather was an addict, even his great grandfather."
"I challenge you. I challenge you to be a cycle breaker."
Sophomore Hassan Kamarn said Davis did an admirable job addressing the University community.
"For him to have enough courage to stand up in a crowd, especially college kids, and share such an important message really stood out to me," Kamarn said. "It's so hard to approach people not with praise but with faults, and Mr. Davis did a really great job at that."
University College Council President Kosi Remy said Davis's speech would help form a closer relationship between the student government and the greek life on campus.
"Any time you have a motivational speaker as good as Dan Davis, it helps the University come together as a community," Remy said. "The student government along with many of the fraternities are really trying to tackle the substance abuse issue, and Dan Davis is a great speaker to help with that."
Delta Chi member and Rutgers College junior Yan Lipovetski said it was important to have so many fraternities come out and show support for such an important cause.
"We all agreed this would be a good speaker and would benefit the community, that's why so many different frats deiced to come out and show their support," Lipovetski said.
The Alpha Chi Rho fraternity sponsored the program in conjunction with the University College Council.
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