End the Stigma: Let’s Talk About It

Mental health. Sometimes it’s a scary thing to bring up. In professional sports, it’s definitely something that people shy away from talking about. With the scandals coming out of the NFL regarding head trauma to the lawsuits swirling in the NHL, mental illness is now becoming a more popular topic of conversation in the world of professional sports. As an aspiring executive in the front office of a major sports franchise, I realize the importance of these conversations around a board room table. How do we best support our athletes in ALL facets of life while they are paid within our organization and long after they have retired?

This week, a popular Canadian organization among NHL players, Bell Let’s Talk, held their annual Bell Let’s Talk Day. This is a day where if you’re scrolling through social media, you may find many professional hockey players simply tweeting #BellLetsTalk. A quick Google search takes you to their page which states “On Bell Let’s Talk Day, Canadians and people around the world joined in to help create positive change for people living with mental health issues. Thanks to your actions, Bell will donate more to Canadian mental health initiatives.” Although this is simply a Canadian organization, it begs the question why are our athletes so enthralled with mental health?

You can see it in the headlines regularly: “Starting Goaltenders Battle Physical and Mental Fatigue” (Associated Press, 2018), “Athletes Get real about Mental Health” (Psychotherapy Networker), “10 Famous Athletes that Struggle with Depression” (Health Central, 2019)… the list goes on and on. As the millennials begin to take over the workforce, mental health is talked about more and more. People that sit at everyday desk jobs go to therapy so why shouldn’t our athletes that take balls and pucks and elbows and feet to the head almost on a daily basis for our entertainment? Yes, injuries like concussions are common in athletes, but we should be allowing our athletes to feel heard while they are in our organization and long after they are retired.

With the ever-popular conversation surrounding CTE injuries, scientists know that “early symptoms of CTE usually appear in a patient's late 20s or 30s, and affect a patient's mood and behavior” (Concussion Legacy Foundation). This time frame is generally the peak of many athletes’ careers, especially in hockey. Better performance for our organization means a healthy athlete both in body AND mind.

Mental health for athletes started to become important to me after reading an article by Nick Boynton in the Players’ Tribune during the summer of 2018. I was preparing the books for the Predators development camp and reading through articles to be included. That summer, camp would have a theme of talking about mental health and drug abuse and would feature a few speakers to talk to our players about their own experiences with both. While reading this article, it really clicked for me about why I as a future executive should be advocating more for the athletes that I pay. Nick Boynton was a tough guy in hockey. An enforcer. Reading about his journey with different pills to numb the pain of being an enforcer shook me to my core. Now I would never knock the trainers because during his career, this was how hockey was played. It was (and still is to an extent) extremely violent. It meant putting your enforcers on the ice to do their job in order to win games. What really got to me was when he asked for help, he was traded to another team. Almost as if “it’s not my problem anymore you deal with him.” Nick’s story sticks with me to this day. It’s why every morning when I write down my goals that I want to accomplish within the next 10 or so years of my life I write down “implement mental health practices with my team.” I feel so strongly that whatever team I end up with, I need to use my voice and my knowledge to say enough is enough. I’m not asking for the rules and the way the game is played to be changed. I’m simply asking that we support our athletes holistically.

So, let’s end this stigma. Let’s talk about the mental wellness of our athletes. Because if they are putting their bodies on the line for our team’s success each and every day shouldn’t we want to do the same thing for them?