HOLLYWOOD –The subject of mental health and the quality of life that comes with playing football in the United States came up as often as any question during Pac-12 Media Day on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf is one of the leading voices supporting increased awareness and research on the subject, and the impact Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) has been shown to have with regard to mental health.
Leaf discussed the subject and more with TheDawgReport.com/Rivals.com during an exclusive one-on-one interview. Below is the full transcription from the conversation.
On having through the ringer of life and football, are you better for it and what needs to change if anything? – Well just as long as people don’t keep their head buried in the sand about what’s going on. Continue to make it as safe as possible, but have an understanding that these are symptoms and these are things can result from that, and that’s going to be problematic for a lot of parents. I’m a new dad myself. My son’s not going to play football. He’s not going to wear a helmet at least until he’s a freshman, and then we’re going to let him make the decision. By that time most likely he may not want to even, but we’re going to give him as much information as we can. That’s also 15 years from now. Who knows what football is going to look like, at least the landscape’s going to look like, 15 years from now. When people – the whole uproar over the last week with Larry Fedora and his comments and stuff like that – the biggest question I want to ask, because of what happened with the diagnosis with Tyler [Hilinski] after we found out all this is that is that if you at, if somebody says you know I would play football no matter what. And go well, what if I told you that if you play this game that at 21 you’re going to have such degenerative brain disease that you think your only option is to kill yourself. That’s a different conversation. That’s not just about some safety. That’s about life and death. So that’s where I think we might be going. I think football is a great sport. It’s given me everything. It also may have contributed to my mental health and some of my brain disease. So we don’t know that. But I’m still going to be a champion of it because I think it does a lot for people, and the more we talk about it and hold people accountable for it I think the better we can make it safety wise.
On what it will take to take the next grand step in regard to having a legitimate conversation regarding mental health? We need more scientific proof and data. We just don’t have enough. What’s sad to say is the amount of data we need may be way down the line, and in that time period we haven’t stopped doing some things that we needed to stop doing and that can be detrimental to some other human beings. But yeah I think there has to be a ton more science done before we can say football is contributing to brain damage and death. That’s a big leap.
On is simply having a conversation the hardest element to talking the subject? – I don’t want – that’s the thing I don’t want to see. I think it is what it is and I think there should be full transparency about it all. If we can have a conversation about it we can learn how to be better about…we have a good idea symptoms look like with CTE now. Even though they can’t be diagnosed until postmortem we have an idea of what the symptoms look like. If we can treat the symptoms in a healthy way, and I think for me, the fact that I was faced with the substance abuse side of things made me face this head on and I found a healthy, I found healthy alternatives to deal with my mental illness.
On does there ever come a moment, if you didn’t go through the past you had, would you still be advocating for the change that you have been? – I’d like to believe yes. But I think you’re shown a mirror in your life, that makes you address and be accountable for what you’ve done and what you’ve gone through. So it’s tough to say. I’d like to think so, but that usually wasn’t my experience that I was going to be opened minded to the things that went on in my life.
On have there been any former teammates or players that have shared a similar concern without going public? – I don’t think those guys would reach out to me if they didn’t want their story to be told. Because I’m so transparent with what I do and where I’m at that they probably are fearful if they have any interaction with me that it would be that. So for those who have reached out to me they’ve been open and honest about what they’ve gone through, and what they’re going through. And I think that’s a huge thing.
On explaining and reaching people that are seemingly unreachable – You just do your part. You can’t control what they do with your message. You tell them your story. You offer them help and find this peaceful surrender of a life. You become a lighthouse of sorts. A mentor of mine has simply put it all the time that you don’t see lighthouses running around the harbor looking for boats. You stand foundation strong as a safe harbor for people and they have to make a choice at that point. It’s up to them. You can’t want it more for them.
