He nearly lost everything because of his drug addiction, but his friends helped to pull him back from 'the brink'.
The other team 'brought them to the brink of' defeat. [=came very close to defeating them]
an animal that has been 'brought/pulled back from the brink of' extinction
(..) ...Like my heart. Strangers from distant lands,friends of old... ...you've been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle-earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite,or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate,this one doom. So it is true. (..)2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring