DENVER — With the Super Bowl in the rear-view mirror, the NFL offseason is here and players are finally taking some time for their bodies to recover.
But football and other sports can also take a toll on athletes’ mental health.
Former Broncos running back Montee Ball has experienced that struggle personally. Ball is a College Football Hall of Famer who set a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) record for career rushing touchdowns while playing for Wisconsin, before being drafted in 2013by the Broncos — his “favorite team” growing up.
But Ball says the intense pressure to perform and win led him to alcohol. He told Denver7 he’s now been in recovery for 10 years.
“For me, just that relationship with the bottle, dealing with suffering and silence, being too afraid to open up and to speak about what I’m going through, are things, of course, that we’re still seeing today, that we’re trying to de-stigmatize,” Ball told Denver7.
Ball said he’s seen progress in that regard, with more athletes speaking up and talking about their mental health struggles.
Yet Ball said more work still needs to be done, adding that coaches, athletic directors and other leaders need to also act as “first responders,” looking out for warning signs in their athletes. Ball points out that many athletes, even at a young age, spend more time training with their coaches than with their families.
“The most important part is to view them as a human being,” Ball said. “That comes first, because the sport’s going to end. We want to make sure that you have a great life following this sport, and we can help you with that.
Ball is now lobbying for a bill being discussed at the Colorado State Capitol that would require youth coaches to take an annual mental health education course and to discuss with parents the relationship between concussions and mental health.
“I had to reach out for help. I had to go through treatment. I had to peel back the layers like an onion and figure out for one: ‘Who is Montee Ball?’ That identity piece. And then, of course, figure out what comes next.”
The training, Ball said, would include resources for athletes who are struggling.
“This isn’t a Republican issue, this isn’t a Democrat issue,” Ball said. “This is something that we all can come to the table together and say, ‘Okay, yes, we got to figure out how to reallocate some funds and enforce this.’”
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