Alcohol, drugs and sex – these are the problems we expect people to be confronting when they enter rehab. But this Thursday, Buzz Bissinger, the author of Friday Night Lights and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, checked himself into rehab for a far lesser-known addiction: shopping. His location remains undisclosed.
Bissinger, a former Daily Pennsylvanian Sports and Opinion Editor graduating in 1976, announced his shopping addiction – primarily clothing shopping – in a statement to NBC as well as in an article in GQ. In the article, Bissinger claims that since his addiction started in 2010, he has spent nearly $600,000 on clothes alone.
The candid GQ article reveals that he owns 81 leather jackets, 75 pairs of boots, 41 pairs of leather pants and 115 pairs gloves, among many other things. The 58-year-old, who currently resides in Philadelphia as a columnist for The Daily Beast, chronicled his all-expenses-paid trip as a special guest at a fashion show for Gucci – the brand he has spent most of his clothing budget on.
Bissinger also made sure to confront the notion held by many that shopping addiction is not a true problem, or a lesser addiction. His descriptions of the feelings that came with purchasing clothes mirror those described by drug addicts: “The futile feeding of the bottomless beast and the unavoidable psychological implications, the immediate hit of the new that feels like an orgasm and the inevitable coming-down.”
The fiery and opinionated sports journalist left his short-lived radio program in December amidst reports that his outspoken personality was causing problems at the radio station. In the GQ article, he revealed that some of these problems may have been due to his addiction.
