helped pay some of them off. Vitto and owner Mike Ilitch tried their best to help him, keeping him on a budget and requiring him to attend meetings with Gamblers Anonymous and therapists. However, according to a 1995 profile of Schlichter in Columbus Monthly, things escalated to the point that even without the AFL wanting to give the expansion Rockers a shot in the arm, he would have had to leave Detroit for his own safety. Soon after arriving in Cincinnati, he was arrested in July for passing a bad check. He admitted suffering a relapse, but the Rockers were willing to stand by him. They worked out a deal with Schlichter in which they put most of his paycheck into an account to pay his gambling debts, except for $300 which they gave to Mitzi. Even then, his gambling continued unabated; at various points in the 1992 season, there were police waiting for Schlichter in the dressing room. By the end of the 1992 season, the Rockers were losing patience with Schlichter and asked him to take a substantial pay cut if he wanted to return for the 1993 season. In a 2020 interview, former AFL commissioner Joe O'Hara said that around this time, Las Vegas oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough alerted league officials that Schlichter was betting on AFL games. When O'Hara learned this, he ordered the Rockers to release Schlichter. However, he was allowed to save face by publicly announcing his retirement. The pattern continued during his time as a sports talk host. According to longtime Cincinnati radio personality Mike Wolfe, who worked with Schlichter at WSAI, Schlichter was known to try to wrangle money out of callers. Station management covered for him when a victim of one of his cons came after him. Kutner recalled that at KVEG, his penchant for bilking his friends and bouncing checks was a topic of on-air discussion. The habit took a considerable toll on his marriage. Schlichter pawned off Mitzi's wedding ring to get money to gamble, only to discover it had been sold when he tried to get it back. He frequently stayed up late tracking scores; Mitzi often found him vomiting the next morning from what he claimed was the flu, but was really nerves. He also stole money from Mitzi as well. Mitzi claims that, in order to protect herself and her children, she never allowed Art to have