Raised in a volatile home in Redondo Beach, California, Owen Hanson found his identity in sports and eventually walked on to Pete Carroll’s 2003-2004 National Championship teams at the University of Southern California. Surrounded by privilege and influence, Hanson wanted the acceptance and lifestyle he saw others enjoy.
What began with selling steroids and BetOdog, a high-stakes sports betting endeavor, quickly escalated into large-scale trafficking, money laundering and international ties to the cartel. By his twenties, Hanson was living a life of luxury, until millions in proceeds went missing and everything unraveled. With addiction, dangerous associates and federal investigators closing in, his world collapsed.
After his arrest, Hanson served nearly a decade of a 21-year sentence. While incarcerated, he reflected on his choices and found an unexpected path forward. A makeshift protein ice cream made from commissary ingredients sparked the idea for California Ice Protein, the company he founded after earning his MBA in prison.
Now the author of “The California Kid” and the focus of Amazon Prime’s “Cocaine Quarterback,” Hanson shares his story as one of accountability, redemption and rebuilding from the ground up.
