Mental health matters

As you’ve probably read in previous editions of ‘Brandt’s Corner’, I pride myself on being a massive sports fan. The position I hold has a symbiotic relationship with this — I am passionate about what I do and, in turn, I get to watch more sports. Last week, I talked about how I might be consuming too much football. I wouldn’t say any of that, or this, if it weren’t true. So, I’d like to consider myself a bit of an expert in the sporting world. Sure, there are sports I don’t watch, and there are others who watch more than I do, but I still follow more than most Americans. And one thing that I’ve noticed as of late, is the mental toll it takes on athletes of every level.

There are the high-profile cases. Aaron Hernandez, Simone Biles, and Antonio Brown all come to mind. Calvin Ridley, Tiger Woods, and even Justin Tucker this season are ones that are also up there. But they aren’t the only ones affected by mental health struggles throughout their competition careers.

I mentioned Justin Tucker because while he hasn’t addressed anything of the sort, his game is off so far this year. I’m certainly not one to diagnose someone else, but I know that one of the greatest kickers football has ever seen hitting a slump has to be taking a mental toll on him, whether he addresses that or not.

Ask almost anyone who’s watched professional football in the last decade or so about Aaron Hernandez. What a sad, terrible story that was. Simone Biles backed out of Olympic competition while on site because of her mental health. Antonio Brown went from being on track to be one of the greatest receivers of all time until Vontaze Burfict demolished him over the middle on a dirty hit. Calvin Ridley stepped away from his favorite game due to his mental health, plus some other off-field activities that easily could have been spurred by a mental health crisis, and he hasn’t been the same since. Tiger Woods saw his entire world fall to ashes in the public’s eye, and he also hasn’t been the same since — sans the 2019 Masters.

There are many athletes with similar stories. Rae Carruth, Henry Ruggs, Chris Benoit. A lot of these have one big thing hanging a dark shadow over them, and that is CTE. That is not an excuse for their actions; instead, it is to help explain some of their actions. At the end of the day, personal responsibility still needs to happen, but some people are struggling more than we’ll ever know.

Those are the stories we know about. What we don’t know about, generally, are the kids that are suiting up on Friday nights in Sampson County. Or the ones on Monday through Thursday in a different sport. Our home-grown athletes, right here in our little slice of the world in rural N.C.

You might catch yourself at a high school game this week, this month, or this year. You might have a player on a team, or you might not. You might just decide to go to a game for the heck of it. You might not even go to a high school game — younger athletes, like those in middle or elementary school, have some of the same struggles as their older role models. Regardless, you’re still there supporting those kids. And the best way to do that is by keeping in mind that you don’t know what they’re going through.

Your team’s quarterback threw a late game interception and it cost your team the game? A setter missed a crucial hit in a volleyball game? A goalie let the opponents score at the end of the half, giving up the only goal of the night? Those things happen. Obviously, we want the best out of, and for, our kids and our favorite teams. But it’s still a competition, with the opponents, and their fans, vying for the same outcome — a win.

Neither you, me, nor anyone else knows what some of these kids are facing. They will be up early in the morning, sit through class all day — one or more of which they might struggle with — just to suit up and play that night. It leads to a long day and a lot of stress. Some kids don’t have the best home lives. So for you, as an adult, to yell at them when they mess up, just adds to their already bad mental state.

As adults, we know nobody is perfect. Surely we never led a team to four straight undefeated seasons with state championship endings, but even if you did, you messed up along the way. If we ask ourselves, our family, our bosses, or our coworkers for forgiveness when we make a mistake, we should only be so nice as to grant these children the same thing.

Don’t let this take away from the spirit of competition — by all means, I’m rooting for every Sampson County team to win every game, even though that’s statistically impossible — but sometimes we stumble, we fall short, we don’t get everything we worked hard for. And that’s OK.