Mental Health is Top Priority for Neal Brown
Two weeks ago, West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown said his “antenna is up for the mental health and well-being” for his players. Also citing “a lot of our guys are riding emotional rollercoasters,” before continuing with a few examples.
“Just think about it, you’re out on your own, now you’re back in your parents’ home and it’s been a couple years. Just different things your family may be going through – people out of work, different things like that. So, our guys are dealing with so much. So, what I try to do is really try to stay in tune.”
Then on Wednesday morning, morale appears to be somewhat low. Of course, it should go without saying that it is completely understanding considering there is no set to return date after two months of being quarantined.
“Honestly, the last two weeks have been tougher on our guys than probably the previous six. You know, we’re at a point where they need something to look forward, said Brown. “So much of their days, and really, year-long calendar is structured. And, as we finished up that last semester, we’re looking forward to a date and hopefully, that’s coming in the near future.”
Mental health is not a new issue, but recently, more and more professional players have come forward about battling mental illness. Even the great Jerry West wrote about battling depression in his book “West by West” that was released in 2011 and more recently, 23-time gold medalist Michael Phelps opened up about his bouts with depression to help take away the stigmatism surrounding mental illnesses.
Because players have been open about confronting their mental illnesses and with a coach like Neal Brown who gives attention to every detail, he doesn’t let something as serious as mental health slip through the cracks, he gets ahead of it and makes it his top priority.
“When I talk about player health and wellness, I want to see them on one of the meetings where I can look because I know the kids,” said Brown. “I can tell if something’s off, and if there’s something off, then OK, let's start asking the questions.
“Maybe they just woke up and they got on the zoom because they were late - Maybe they lost somebody - Maybe somebody has the virus that they know. Maybe something happened there financially. That’s why we try to have eyeball to eyeball contact Monday through Friday. If so, we can get a good picture of how they are doing. It has little to do with the game of football – it has little to do with academics, and it has mostly to do with are they safe? Are they well? And so, we have to be in tune with it. And, I think our guys have done pretty well.
“We’ve had issues. I think probably anybody that has 100 people on their roster or in the company or whatever, they’ve had individuals in that organization that really struggled with this and we’re not immune to that. We’ve has staff members really struggle with it. We’ve had players really struggle with it, but I think we’ve been able to help to this point but it’s an ongoing process.”
Brown made it clear that he’s “worried right now about our player's mental well-being probably more than their physical well-being,” as he said in his opening statement, some of it may be “they just need something to look forward too.”
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