CHICKASHA, Okla. - More than two years after his last NFL tackle, former Eagles defensive lineman Sam Rayburn recalled lying in bed at night, striking an internal bargain.

Tomorrow, he would stop taking the pills.

This past winter, Rayburn said, he thought he could control his spiraling intake of narcotic painkillers. Under the influence couldn't apply to him. He was an athlete - at least a former athlete. He had played in the Super Bowl. He wasn't an addict.

Of course, that meant ignoring how Rayburn acquired some of the pills - by his own admission, he stole a prescription pad from a doctor and forged prescriptions for the painkillers Percocet and Lortab.

"Especially toward the end, when I was taking obscene amounts, I was hiding it from everybody - I was even hiding it from myself," Rayburn said recently at a coffee shop near his home here.

Rayburn said he began self-medicating when he played for the Eagles from 2003 through 2006, finding painkillers on his own to deal with nagging injuries he didn't want Eagles trainers or coaches to focus on or even know about. He didn't become addicted, he said, until he was out of the league. The problem eventually grew "out of control," he said.

Rayburn and investigators in court documents say that on March 19, at Rayburn's request, two local men entered pharmacies here and tried to fill prescriptions that Rayburn had forged.

Nathan Ballinger, 23, and Brian Burdex, 18, were each charged with one felony count of obtaining or attempting to obtain a controlled substance by forgery or fraud. They are free on bond.

Rayburn said he told police that he was responsible for the forgeries and had made the requests. In turn, Rayburn was charged with two felony counts of obtaining or attempting to obtain a controlled substance by forgery or fraud. He is free on bond.

Rayburn's attorney, Al Hoch, said a meeting with prosecutors was planned for June 24. He said plea-bargain discussions have begun and he expected "some type of probation."

Rayburn said he hoped the charges against Ballinger and Burdex will be dropped.

A conviction on one such charge could mean two to 10 years in jail and up to a $10,000 fine.

Grady County District Attorney Leah Edwards did not return calls.

While Ballinger could not be reached for comment and Rayburn said he hadn't spoken with him recently, Burdex remains closer to Rayburn. Indeed, Burdex lives with Rayburn and his wife, Ashley, and their two young sons. Burdex is a friend of Ashley's brother, Chad.

Rayburn once got a $1.3 million signing bonus from the Eagles and said he spent his money wisely - except for perhaps "hundreds of thousands of dollars" spent on painkillers after he finished playing.

Ashley works as a real estate agent. Sam, still shy of his degree from the University of Tulsa, is not working, but said he hoped to coach football one day.

For now, he said, he is concentrating on beating the drug addiction. He entered a treatment facility in 2008, but it did not work. Then after his arrest in March, he spent 45 days in two rehabilitation facilities. He said he has been clean for more than 80 days after taking more than 100 pills a day earlier this year.

"I think it would have led me either to jail or to death - I don't think there was really any other option," Rayburn said.

Another side to the game

Rayburn's story illustrates a side of the game that doesn't make the flashy introduction to Monday Night Football. Forging prescriptions may not be the norm, but the whole scenario of football players in pain, then becoming addicted, sounds familiar to some experts