KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The death of Marshawn Kneeland, former Western Michigan University football player and Dallas Cowboy, continues to spark conversations about mental health and seeking help when it’s needed.
Eric Hipple led the Detroit Lions to two playoff appearances and a divisional championship over his 10 years as quarterback in the 1980s.
But, each week, he was up against much more than the opposing team.
“This is at a time when, of course, there wasn’t really anything out there for players,” Hipple said.
Hipple remembers struggling with mental health since high school, and getting drafted into the NFL was no different.
Throughout his time as a Lion, Hipple had five different offensive coordinators and three head coaches, constantly having to navigate a new support system, along with intense training, mounting pressure to win, and the risk of injury on every snap.
“It’s a huge transition,” Hipple said. “If you’re not balanced, it can be a lot to take on, especially for a young person.”
Once Hipple was out of the NFL, he navigated a whole new set of struggles, feeling a loss of identity after dedicating his life to the field.
However, it wasn’t until Hipple lost his 15-year-old son to suicide that he turned to the University of Michigan’s Depression Center for help.
“It is so painful to lose somebody to suicide,” Hipple said. “The fact the person’s gone, not there anymore, and yet you don’t really have a real reason why that happened.”
That unimaginable heartache led Hipple down a path of mental health advocacy, using what he learned from his pain and prior experiences to teach others.
Hipple has helped introduce new resources to the NFL, such as the Lion’s peer outreach program, where every alumni is reached out to on a monthly basis to continue building connection and community.
But, what Hipple says still stands in the way is stigma.
“We are trained from a young age that, when you get knocked down, you get back up. You’re the tough one,” Hipple said. “So the reason why a player won’t reach out is because they don’t want to be the weak link, especially, as I said, if they’re still playing.”
So Hipple now spends his life working to reduce that stigma by raising awareness about depression and suicide prevention.
For anyone struggling, here are some resources that can help: