New NFL Coach Wrote Confessional Book With Wife

'Recovering narcissist' Dave Canales detailed his infidelity, drinking, and addiction to porn
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 30, 2024 5:56 PM CST
New NFL Coach Wrote Confessional Book With Wife
Dave Canales, left, with Tampa Bay players at practice last year. He is moving on to Carolina as head coach.   (AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)

Dave Canales is ready to begin his journey as head coach of the Carolina Panthers 16 months after co-authoring a faith-based book about working through problems with his sexual infidelity, addiction to pornography and binge drinking. The book This Marriage? The Question That Changed Everything was written by Canales and his wife, Lizzy. It details how the 42-year-old coach has worked to overcome his problems and the couple found its way back to a healthy, Christian-based marriage, per the AP. Canales wrote that with the help of counseling and family, he no longer has issues with infidelity or pornography and he has stopped drinking completely.

Canales published the book in September 2022 when he was still a position coach with the Seattle Seahawks and before he got his big break and became offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023, leaving him one step from becoming a head coach. The couple said they wrote the book to help other couples struggling with marriage. "We wanted other people to feel safe starting this journey toward a vibrant marriage by helping them see they are not alone," the couple wrote in the book's preface.

The couple said writing the book and reliving the painful details of their past was like going through another round of counseling, but it helped them "find renewed healing and hope through a stronger understanding of what happened." Canales also described himself as a "recovering narcissist," and detailed how he had to work hard at "developing the skills necessary to be aware beyond myself and my needs." The couple have four children. (Canales, who is Mexican-American, is one of a record nine minority coaches in the league at the moment.)

(More NFL stories.)

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