“The majority of the people on the team while I was there were suicidal to the point where we all thought it was normal to feel that way.” There is a mental health crisis in college football. @derekcrim.bsky.social and I explain for @canadiandimension.bsky.social. - ThreadSky

nkalamb.bsky.social • 70 days ago

“The majority of the people on the team while I was there were suicidal to the point where we all thought it was normal to feel that way.”

There is a mental health crisis in college football.

@derekcrim.bsky.social and I explain for @canadiandimension.bsky.social.

Comments

christinenowik.bsky.social•70 days ago

I thought about this a lot when I witnessed some of the coaching on Netflix's Last Chance U. Factor in what we now know about COVID's effects on the brain and what we already knew about CTE & we have a terrible situation here for athletes.

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

You’re absolutely right.

artificialmcb.bsky.social•69 days ago

You know what’s fucked? That’s the way everyone in my graduate program felt too. The brutality of the American university system chews up passionate young people out until they crash & burn.

nkalamb.bsky.social•69 days ago

That truly is fucked.

nml-dc.bsky.social•69 days ago

Yes. I don't know anyone who didn't know someone who died by suicide in grad school.

shirsho.bsky.social•70 days ago

📌

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

“It’s very clear [Coach] and the staff don’t take mental health seriously at all. As a matter of fact it seems more like [Coach] takes it as a challenge to push you to your brink and try to make things worse.”

- former college football player

https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/there-is-a-mental-health-crisis-in-us-college-football

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

“I remember specifically times where I and others would have mental breakdowns at practice (crying screaming at the top of the lungs) and for the most part when it happened it would just be ignored until it stopped, nobody besides teammates reached out to see if we were okay.”

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

Former Penn State team primary care physician Dr. Pete Seidenberg recently testified that coach James Franklin and AD Sandy Barbour allegedly tried to get a player who had recently attempted suicide medically disqualified while he was still under psychiatric care.

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

While concern for mental health and self-care are increasingly prevalent across US society, the 25 former players we spoke to for our @uncpress.bsky.social book *The End of College Football* reveal that the world of big-time college football is a clear exception.

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469683461/the-end-of-college-football/

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

A recent NCAA study found that 17% of men athletes and 44% of women athletes reported being constantly overwhelmed.

Only 50% reported feeling comfortable consulting with a licensed mental health practitioner on campus.

https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/there-is-a-mental-health-crisis-in-us-college-football

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

One player explained to us for the book that there is no confidentiality when it comes to accessing mental health services because they are located in the same building as football facilities–so coaches can actually monitor to see if players enter.

https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/there-is-a-mental-health-crisis-in-us-college-football

queeringtherapist.bsky.social•70 days ago

“Self-care”- a bastardized, privatized commodification of its original radical & *collective* roots & intent. And “mental health” always locates problems in ppl (biology, chemistry, FOO, bad choices, etc) making it personal responsibility to address problems caused/furthered by this neolib hellscape

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

🎯

susanlois.bsky.social•70 days ago

Gun deaths are now the # 1 killer of our children. 60% of gun deaths are from suicide. The funders of the NRA are murderers

monewsdaily.bsky.social•69 days ago

TBH...at this point from what we know about injury and the lack of benefit of organized sports, anyone continuing to push/support is complicit.

scholarbarbie.bsky.social•70 days ago

📌

virginiaopossum.bsky.social•70 days ago

You have a sport here that we now know causes permanent brain injury. If the coaches and universities don't care about _that_, they're not going to care about anything else.

nkalamb.bsky.social•70 days ago

It’s true.

lessick.bsky.social•69 days ago

I'm not naive enough to think it will solve all problems, but do you think that transfer portal/NIL might lead to some better treatment of players?

nkalamb.bsky.social•69 days ago

These are objectively improvements. Remaining concerns include employee status, capacity for collective bargaining, and proper enforceable contracts.

realturkana.bsky.social•69 days ago

I’m sure nascent CTE has nothing to do with it.

bartleby6316.bsky.social•70 days ago

A few years ago when the evidence about CTE became too overwhelming to deny, I thought, Well that’s the end for youth and college football, right? Wrong. If there’s one thing that makes America exceptional, it’s our capacity to normalize atrocities.

addisonroberts.bsky.social•70 days ago

Upsetting quote here. Tagging to come back

hombredebicycle.bsky.social•70 days ago

what about influence of steroids? how many get treatment?

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