Veteran wide receiver Brandon Marshall has long been open about seeking treatment for his mental health, and he was encouraged by the recent news that the league and the union have set up a committee to focus on mental health and wellness.
Marshall told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the league’s efforts “are a start, but not the finish line.”
“This is a call to action to take the case of our minds as serious as they do our bodies. Hopefully they don’t put the clinicians in the back of the building, next to the janitor’s closet,” Marshall said. “We talk about how life, and the game is 80 percent mental, but we don’t act like that when it comes to how players are being treated?”
Marshall, who is currently a free agent but hopes to play in the NFL this year, said he hopes to see treatment for mental health become a normalized part of medical care, for football players and for everyone else.
