An item from last Sunday explained the efforts of Colts tackle Braden Smith, who endured serious OCD in 2024, to expand access to player mental-health resources, and to streamline and modernize the league’s handling of players confronting such challenges.
With the Colts on a bye this week, Smith visited PFT Live for a lengthy discussion regarding his own journey, and his commitment to helping other players who may end up needing help for any type of non-physical ailment.
The relevant portion of the interview is attached. The full conversation is here.
As it relates to the league, Smith wants mental-health issues to be handled like any other condition acquired while playing the inherently physical, stressful, and demanding sport of professional football. Currently, a player who has developed anxiety, depression, OCD, or any other mental-health condition lands on the non-football illness list, if/when it prevents him from practicing and playing. Smith has been advocating directly with the league to make such players eligible for injured reserve. This will, among other things, remove the possibility that the player’s team will decide not to pay his salary while he’s on the NFI list.
Hopefully, the league won’t view it as a matter of collective bargaining, but as the right thing to do for the men who play the game.
Regarding the NFL Players Association, Smith wants to expand the existing network of contacts for workers’ compensation attorneys in each city to include mental-health professionals who will serve as an immediate contact point for any player who needs help. That person would then refer the player to the appropriate professional, if it is determined that specific assistance, diagnosis, or treatment is needed.
In some cases, the player may just need to talk to someone. And the player — as Smith explained — may not feel comfortable using the mental-health clinicians made available by the teams. Correct or incorrect, real or imagined, some players fear that activating the team-provided mental-health resources will get back to those who shape the roster. The legitimate concern is that the player’s mental-health issues will become a factor when deciding who stays and who goes. Who gets playing time and who doesn’t. Who gets a new contract and who doesn’t.
The goal is to remove all obstacles to players seeking help when help is needed. It’s hard enough, for many, to open up at all. If they believe that opening up could cause more problems than it solves, they won’t do it.
Football constantly changes and evolves. The NFL, we believe, is always trying to improve. In the past 16 years, the league has made player health and safety a priority. Mental health should be a priority, too.
The recent death of Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland should be the catalyst. Both the league and the union should embrace any and all possible strategies for providing a system that will remove any and all barriers to a player who is silently dealing with problems that have become too big for him to deal with alone.
Smith should be applauded for using his own challenges as the spark to help other players. Any players who read this should send it to their teammates. The agents who read this should send it to their clients. Braden Smith’s commitment should spark a groundswell for the kind of positive change that will result in players struggling with the question of whether to get help to believe that safe, easy, and effective paths are immediately available.
