Former Ohio State football player, Harry Miller, went on national television to talk about his experience with mental health in his collegiate sport.
Miller went on TODAY to spread awareness of mental health in athletes specifically. He was a three year starter on the Ohio State University football team. He was classified as a kid who had it all. Nobody saw or wanted to listen to what he was really feeling. He held onto the little bit of hope that he could to get him through the toughest time of his life.
“I would just say hope is just pretending to believe in something until one day you don’t have to pretend any more. And right now we have all the logic, all the rationale in the world to give up on it. And I just ask, pretend for a little bit, and then one day you won’t have to pretend any more and you’ll be happy.”
It is common for student-athletes to receive distasteful messages and opinions after a loss. It is common for these athletes to get death threats over their performance. These gestures are common today and that is the issue. Nobody is saying anything when everything needs to be said.
Miller took that responsibility when he made his public statement about his decision to step away from football.
“I can tell you my skin was tough. It had to be. But it was not tougher than the sharp metal edge of my box cutter,” Miller said. “I was planning on being reduced to my initials on a sticker on the back of a helmet.”
Miller was extremely raw and vulnerable when speaking on TODAY. He was open about how he has always struggled with depression and anxiety ever since he was a young boy.
“People call me brave. But to me this felt like not dying, and I felt like being honest. And maybe bravery is just being honest when it would be easier not to, and if that’s bravery, then so be it.”
Miller is only one of few athletes who have been so vocal about their mental health struggles being a student athlete. Miller is majoring in Civil Engineering and holds a 4.0 GPA. That alone holds stress and then adds the rigorous demands of an athlete on top.
We should be grateful that Miller is still here today to tell his story. More times than not, we hear about these athletes after it is too late. Miller hopes his story can help just one person struggling or who is feeling alone. He fought his toughest demons and wants to be the voice for people who feel they do not deserve one.