the iron hand until sundown
He absorbed Substances only at night, after practice. Not so much as a fractional foamer between 0900h. and 1800h. during the seasons of practice and play, and he settled for just a single duBois on Thursday evenings before actual games. During football season he ruled himself with an iron hand until the sun set, then threw himself on the mercy of sidewalks and the somnolent hum.
Context
The bargaining discipline that lets the disease run for years without being called a disease: iron self-rule all day, total surrender after dark, one love protected by a schedule built around the other. It reads as admirable control and it is really the enabling structure — the addict who can quit until 1800h. every day proves to himself daily that he isn't hooked, and the proof is what keeps him using. The regimen protects football right up until football is the thing the Substances finally take.