Sun-Times Columnist Discusses His Life As 'Drunkard'

CHICAGO (CBS 2) ― He is one of Chicago's best known columnists, but three years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times' Neil Steinberg became known for something he'd rather not be.

One night after drinking, Steinberg struck his wife Edie. Though charges were later dropped, he was ordered to go to rehab. The result is the book "Drunkard", published this summer. It's an honest, sometimes painful look at his demons and his perpetual road to recovery.

CBS 2's Rob Johnson reports that for star Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Neil Steinberg, whose opinions appears four times a week in the paper, his drinking habits were shaped at the iconic Billy Goat Tavern on Thursday nights long ago.

"There'd be 30 people from the Sun-Times and Tribune there," Steinberg said. "There'd be Mike Royko in the corner having his vodka tonics talking to Dick Mitchell, and you'd settle in and swap stories."

But over time, Steinberg's normal became anything but.

"You know you're having a beer and you're having wine, then you're having a mixed drink, and you're having a Jack Daniels on the rocks," Steinberg said.

Steinberg's wife Edie knew he had a problem and suggested AA meetings.

"It just struck me as some sort of group of broken people that I certainly wasn't going to become," Steinberg said.

But he did become that person, bottoming out on a night in 2005.

"I'd never hit her before, and, I just, something in me snapped," Steinberg said.

Neil was arrested. Though charges were later dropped, the judge ordered him to rehab for 28 days. So this professional wordsmith, who was serving a two month suspension from the paper, decided to do what he did best - write.

"But why not really focus on it and try to see if there is anything helpful here, and there was," Steinberg said.

The result is Steinberg's sixth book "Drunkard", a harsh, unflinching look at his dark journey through alcoholism, and his effort to not let it define him.

"You don't choose your demons, what you choose is how to fight them, how you react to them," Steinberg said.

Steinberg hasn't had a drink for six months now. He says restoring the trust between Edie and him, and being a good father to his sons Ross and Kent are his top priorities, but "it" is always there.

"I see it as a movie monster. You can have shot and stabbed it with a stake through its heart and locked it in a box and you've got it buried in the backyard, and you're dusting off your hands and you walk in the living room and there it is," Steinberg said.

And though Steinberg says it doesn't hang over them like it once did, there are reminders everywhere. Take for instance an opera Neil and Edie attended where revelry was on full display.

"And they're twirling around and they're singing, 'drink drink drink and drink drink drink drink drink drink drink,' and my wife leans over and says 'you just can't catch a break, can you?'" Steinberg said.

For the record, Steinberg says this book is not trying to justify his drinking or his actions. But it served as therapy for an imperfect man, who wanted to get it all out there, shortcomings and all.

Steinberg's wife Edie was a major partner in telling this story because, as Neil points out, many times she was the sober one there.