MELBOURNE, Australia — Puka Nacua said alcohol became one of the ways he escaped stress before he entered a holistic care facility this offseason. The Los Angeles Rams receiver spoke with Netflix’s Elle Duncan in a pregame interview that aired Thursday, before the Rams opened the season against the San Francisco 49ers. Nacua said the offseason brought the darkest times he has had in his life.
“Alcohol was definitely a thing for me,” Nacua said. “Just kind of drowning myself, so that the issues and the stress that I was feeling never had the opportunity to be addressed. But right when I entered the rehabilitation center, I was able to have open and honest conversations.”
Kickoff at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was 7:35 p.m. CT Thursday, which was Friday morning local time, for the first NFL regular-season game played in Australia. The Rams spent about 36 hours in Melbourne between flights. San Francisco won 27-7.
Puka Nacua Details Stress Of Fame, Fatherhood In Netflix Interview
Nacua learned at the facility that he is “very avoidant of conflict,” even though he plays a physical style of football. He also found he had been avoiding the things he knew were causing him stress.
“Some of the change in lifestyle that came unto me, becoming a public figure, the stress of performing at a high level,” Nacua explained. “And then I recently became a father. My son is 10 months old, and navigating that co-parenting relationship with his mother, I would kind of isolate myself to feel the weight of all the issues and things that I have was stuck on my shoulders and not being willing to ask for help.”
“I was never one to share my fears, my worries,” Nacua continued. “I was always finding different ways to escape, I guess, from that tension or that stress.”
The Rams took Nacua in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, No. 177 overall, out of BYU. He led the NFL with 129 catches last season and finished with 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns. Players voted him No. 7 on this year’s NFL Top 100. He is a two-time Pro Bowl selection and a two-time All-Pro.
In an April statement obtained by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Nacua’s attorney, Levi McCathern, said Nacua voluntarily entered the facility in early March. That was before a woman sought a temporary restraining order and filed a civil lawsuit against him, according to McCathern. The statement said Nacua would finish the program in time to take part in the Rams’ organized team activities.
Nacua now keeps a daily journal. At 25, what he looks forward to most is becoming a person he thinks his son will be proud of.
“I want to be able to go to any environment that he might be a part of and have him say, ‘This is my dad,’” Nacua said.
Puka Nacua Still Faces Civil Lawsuit, Possible NFL Discipline
A woman sued Nacua in Los Angeles on March 25. Her lawsuit alleges that he made an antisemitic statement at a New Year’s Eve dinner and later bit her on the shoulder. It cites gender violence, assault and battery, and negligence.
McCathern has denied the antisemitism allegation and described the bite as “horseplay,” Agence France-Presse reported in April. In December, Nacua apologized for a hand-rubbing gesture he performed on an internet livestream. He said he had not known the gesture was antisemitic.
On Thursday, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that Nacua has started the steps required to resolve potential misdemeanor charges through a diversion program, citing a source with knowledge of the situation. No criminal charges have been filed. Under the California procedure being used, the charge would be acknowledged and dismissed at the same time once Nacua completes the requirements, Florio reported.
The NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy lists the disposition of a case through a diversionary program among the outcomes that can lead to discipline. The league had not answered Pro Football Talk’s question on whether starting the program is enough to trigger discipline. Nacua was not among the players the NFL placed on paid leave to open the season.
On Aug. 11, Nacua left the Rams’ joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys early, and he was later diagnosed with psoas soreness. He was not on the Rams’ injury report this week.
His 41-yard catch late in the first quarter Thursday set up the Rams’ only touchdown, a 5-yard run on the first play of the second quarter. Later in the game, Nacua was ruled down inches short of the goal line on a third-down catch, and the 49ers stopped Matthew Stafford short on a fourth-down sneak.
Nacua is due $5.767 million in the final year of his rookie contract, Florio reported. The Rams host the New York Giants at SoFi Stadium on Monday, Sept. 21, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CT.
