Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Sheahan hasn’t drank since embarrassing “super-drunk” driving incident

Source: Harry How/Getty Images North America

Source: Harry How/Getty Images North America

Detroit Red Wings prospect Riley Sheahan pled guilty last month to being “super-drunk” while driving.

He was caught by police in a purple Teletubby costume with teammate Brendan Smith’s ID. He had a blood-alcohol content of .30 -- which is well above the .17 necessary to be designated as “super-drunk” -- and needed to be sent to a hospital for clearance.

“It was a terrible decision. I’m paying the consequences for it,” Sheahan said in an MLive.com report. “There’s so much space in my life now to recover from it and make better decisions, and teach people that they don’t want to go through something like that.”

Sheahan said that worst part was the fact that he embarrassed his parents and the Red Wings’ organization.

“I haven’t drank since, and I’ll try to keep it that way for however long I feel like I should,” he said. “Maybe sometime down the road I can venture back into it, but as of now, I don’t feel like there’s any room for it.”

Sheahan has been talking to community members about the decision he made and the consequences of it. On the ice, he’s been great lately with three goals and four points in his last five games with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins.

He’s been getting plenty of opportunities and his coach, Jeff Blashill, seems happy with his performance. With the ugly incident behind him, things are starting to look up again.

“I guess the fans who all read the news articles and everything, they may just think of me a problem kid who has a drinking problem,” he said. “But I’m going to work hard to get myself out there and maybe change those people’s minds.”