A former Championship goalkeeper was today jailed for seven years and four months after admitting killing two young brothers while driving dangerously at twice the legal alcohol limit.
Luke McCormick, who was playing for Plymouth Argyle at the time, was "driving like an idiot" at around 90mph on the M6 in Staffordshire as he returned from a team-mate's wedding, Stoke-on-Trent crown court was told.
The 25-year-old killed Arron Peak, 10, and his eight-year-old brother, Ben, when his Range Rover ploughed into their family's car.
McCormick today pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and drink-driving.
The judge, Paul Glenn, jailed the former England youth international and banned him from driving for four years.
McCormick kept his head bowed and covered his face with his hand as the court heard how other motorists had seen him driving recklessly at high speed shortly before 6am on June 7.
After the crash, he told eyewitnesses at the scene: "I am so sorry, I'm sorry. I just fell asleep. I fell asleep, I'm sorry," the court heard.
The boys' mother, Amanda Peak, sobbed as the details of the incident were read out.
Arron and Ben, from Partington, Manchester, died when McCormick's vehicle hit the family's Toyota Previa people carrier near junction 16 of the southbound carriageway, sending it down an embankment and into trees.
Their father, Phil Peak, 37, who was driving them and three friends to a day out at the Silverstone race track, was seriously injured.
The other passengers, a 49-year-old man and his sons, aged eight and 15, suffered only minor injuries.
A victim statement submitted to the court said the Peaks' lives had been "totally devastated" by the deaths of their sons.
"Our whole lives have been shattered ... all our hopes and dreams for the future have been taken away from us," the couple wrote.
John Jones, defending McCormick, said the goalkeeper had been upset and distracted at the time due to a malicious rumour concerning his fiancée.
"He was a professional footballer with a potentially glittering future," Jones added.
"That was lost, and indeed lost forever. The Luke McCormick who appears before you today is a shadow of his former self."
McCormick, who had previously helped police to promote road safety, escaped unhurt.
The court was told that he had been found to have 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, against a legal limit of 35 micrograms.
McCormick, whose contract with Argyle was cancelled by "mutual consent" a month after the crash, was twice voted the club's young player of the season.
It is not impossible that he could resume his career on a possible release on parole in little more than three years.
Lee Hughes, now 32, served three years in prison after killing a 56-year-old man when driving drunk in his £100,000 Mercedes car and running away from the scene.
The former West Bromwich Albion striker now plays for Oldham following his release from prison last year.