Many professional athletes have more mental health needs than the average fan

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Spend most of their lives on a pedestal, idealized by others, encountering significantly fewer of life's challenges. Have suspended childhoods. Unable to identify true friends and partners, if any exist. Pressure of having to perform in a profession where the average career last 2-3 years. Not that being an average Joe is always easy, but it's the life I prefer to live.

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Also, CTE is basically ubiquitous in the NFL, and CTE starts from hits in youth football, not just in HS and above.

Football is brutal. I do wonder how long the sport will last

What about if their sig other says something mean and causes them to go on a mental breakdown and quit the Olympics?

A video about Javon Snead popped up on my YouTube feed last night. Forgot he had passed.

The vast majority of them are rampant narcissists that believe they’re above the law and that the average person doesn’t matter.

Kneeland didn’t care if he killed someone last night, he only took his own life because he was a coward and it was the only way left he could escape punishment with his vehicle inoperable. If he had the option of taking the lives of every officer pursuing him and the girl he hit that luckily survived instead and getting away scott free, he wouldn’t have hesitated and would be joking about it at practice today

My interest in football is rapidly precipitating. The quality is dropping, there are serious concerns about competitive integrity/gambling corruption, and I’ve seen too many stories like this one where the only net impact that football players have on society is hurting innocent people. Reckless driving, hit and runs, violent crimes, sexual assault, defrauding welfare/healthcare, drug dealing, etc…enough is enough

I’m sure we’ll get some report about his mental health or CTE to cover it up, but how about this. The guy was a giant piece a shite in general and society is now better off that he’s dead

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Spend most of their lives on a pedestal, idealized by others, encountering significantly fewer of life's challenges. Have suspended childhoods. Unable to identify true friends and partners, if any exist. Pressure of having to perform in a profession where the average career last 2-3 years. Not that being an average Joe is always easy, but it's the life I prefer to live.

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I don't buy the premise that coddled athletes have more mental health problems than the average person. If anything, I would think it's the opposite.

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I think mental health is a problem with anybody, regardless of gender, race, age, etc.

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The mental health crisis in this country is the true pandemic and unfortunately there are still too many people who don't take their own mental health or that of their close relatives/friends seriously.

Sadly we've been trending this way since Reagan closed the majority of mental hospitals and it's taken an exponential turn the wrong way with the proliferation of social media. Instant gratification society is a malignant cancer.

The 988 suicide hotline is one of the best tools out there for suicide prevention and it's still underutilized

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I wouldn’t call what happened last night mental illness.

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I’d argue anyone who is to the point of shooting themselves in the head isn’t right in the head

We have lowered the bar on what qualifies as mental illness in this country as to render the term damned near as meaningless as "racist" or "transphobic". Now, if Little Johnny doesn't want to eat his broccoli, it's not because he's a little brat and simply needs his butt spanked. Nope, some child psychiatrist will claim he's got "Fiber Aversion Syndrome" and prescribe a bushel of pills a day.

It's amazing to me when I story or thread is posted on here about someone committing a heinous act the first reaction by posters is "ohhhhhh, he must be mentally ill" or "this country doesn't put enough resources into mental health", as if it's society's fault this person beat his wife or shot a bank teller. I hate to disabuse you of this notion but the vast amount of criminals are just assholes, plain and simple. Quit excusing their behavior or lessening their criminal culpability with the mental health excuse.

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any acknowledgement of head trauma causing football players to develop mental illness at a young age.

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I have a tough time believing that pee-wee tackle football up to middle school can cause any type of long term brain/CTE trauma. Total laymans opnion but I dont see kids developing the inertia to result in the number of incidents necessary to result in long term damage.

Purely anecdotal, but my immediate group of friends and I played football from 8 yrs old thru high school and some college. Knee and joint injuries abound of course, more than a few of us had one or more probable concussions (bell rung loss of short term memory.2-3 days of lingering symptoms) and those didn't happen until late high school years. No one I know or have come across has had any long term issues related to head injuries playing football at the high school level.

As for CTE specifically, has their been any evidence of non-Professional level football players having CTE/CTE symptoms? Any non-college level athletes having symptoms or a CTE diagnosis?. I honestly wouldn't know.