Sunday, Sept. 16, Zane Gonzalez, kicker for the Cleveland Browns, stood 52 yards away from the field goal post. He was attempting to make a field goal that would tie the game between the Browns and the Saints, which meant a lot to the Browns considering they lost 16 straight games last season. The fate of the game came down to this kick and all eyes were on him.
Gonzalez didn’t make it and the Browns lost 18-21. In addition to the possible game winning kick, he also missed three other kicks that game. This didn’t just result in public ridicule from major news outlets and thousands of people on social media, though. Gonzalez lost his job following his game day performance.
“It’s on me 100 percent,” Gonzalez said. “I can’t blame it on (anybody) else. It sucks because we were so close to that win, and it’s been so long. I just let everybody down.”
A lot of us look at athletes as being superhuman. We think they make flawless free throws, field goals and penalty kicks without feeling the pressure of thousands of fans and a whole team counting on them. In reality, that’s not the case. Gonzalez is just one example of how athletes aren’t perfect, and how they often succumb to the immense pressure they face on a daily basis.
This seems to be a theme throughout all sports, and more and more athletes are coming forward to discuss how this pressure affects their mental health.
NBA player DeMar DeRozan recently opened up to the Toronto Star about his experience with depression, and how the pressure put upon him by coaches, teammates and fans affected him.
“It’s one of them things that no matter how indestructible we look like we are, we’re all human at the end of the day,” DeRozan said. “We all got feelings. Sometimes it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole world’s on top of you.”
Michael Phelps was also open about his experience with depression in an interview with USA Today. He and fellow swimmer Allison Schmitt talked about the importance of creating a dialogue surrounding mental health, and how struggling doesn’t make someone weak.
“I want to be able to get out in front and talk and say look, yes I’ve done these great things in the pool, but I’m also a human,” he said. “I’m also a human, like some of the people in this world who are going through the same exact struggles that I have.”
Like Phelps said, it’s easy to forget that athletes are human. But in reality, they go through the same things everyone else does. They’re normalizing mental health and making it known that everybody struggles, even those so many people look up to.
“Mental health isn’t just an athlete thing,” wrote NBA player Kevin Love. “What you do for a living doesn’t have to define who you are. This is an everyone thing. No matter what our circumstances, we’re all carrying around things that hurt — and they can hurt us if we keep them buried inside. Not talking about our inner lives robs us of really getting to know ourselves and robs us of the chance to reach out to others in need.”