Troubled former Ohio State, Colts quarterback Art Schlichter sentenced in cocaine possession charge

Former Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts quarterback Art Schlichter was sentenced to one year of probation after pleading guilty to a drug charge.

The former Ohio State star was arrested in June of last year and pled guilty to a fifth-degree felony of cocaine possession. He also is required to spend one day in jail.

According to Fox 8 in Cleveland, if Schlichter should violate his probation, he would be subject to 11 months in prison.

Schlichter starred at Ohio State before becoming the fourth overall pick in the 1982 NFL Draft. However, he was plagued by a serious gambling addiction that began in college that ruined his pro career. 

Schlichter was suspended in 1983 after the FBI investigated him, and he was arrested several times shortly after his NFL days, which ended in 1986 after he was a member of the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad. He even gambled during his suspension.

It was revealed that Schlichter had at least $700,000 in gambling debts after the 1982 NFL strike and lost close to $500,000 from the winter of 1982 to the spring of 1983.

After his playing days, he tried a radio career, but was fired from KVEG in Las Vegas after stealing checks from the station owner in order to gamble.

In 2011, Schlichter was handed an 11-year prison sentence for scamming participants in what authorities called a million-dollar sports ticket scheme; he was paroled on June 14, 2021. He also was hit with a charge of stealing more than $1 million from a 68-year-old woman in 2011.

On June 6, 2022, Schlichter was found unresponsive in a hotel room in which 0.26 grams of cocaine were found. Officers administered Narcan in order to reverse the effects of the overdose. Drug paraphernalia was also found “throughout the room,” per The Columbus Dispatch.

In his four years with the Buckeyes, Schlichter threw for 6,584 yards, but as a pro, he played in just 13 games, starting six of them, and hardly eclipsed 1,000 passing yards.

Between 1995 and 2006, Schlichter spent an equivalent of 10 years in jail.