Reading Journal-September 24th

As I read through the major headlines, I often search for trends—things that I can connect individual ideas and news stories with. Yesterday I stumbled upon the news of the apparent suicide of Denver Broncos wide receiver Kenny McKinley, his death not only shocked his team mates and the players of the NFL but it shocked sports analysis and the casual reader as well. As a college student and sports fan I often idolize professional athletes, as a kid I often wished I could be just like them when I was older. How can these athletes whom so many people idolize and dream of being suffer from depression and other such personality disorders that can affect their well-being and state of mind? A Sports Illustrated article goes further in too explaining what types of pressures professional athletes and how that can affect such a disorder from arising. It went on to say that Kenny had broken his leg and couldn’t participate in football related activities—something that directly altered his life. As I look at the lives of professional athletes it is hard to separate there fame and fortune and their life as a pseudo-celebrity from them having to deal with the similar life stresses that all of us must encounter. About a week ago a similar story was reported on CNN. Com, Owen Thomas the captain of the UPenn Football had committed suicide because of undiagnosed depression. An autopsy later reported that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disease that typically affects retired football players and boxers, those whom have had a number of concussions and brain injuries. The disease is often linked with depression and suicide. It may be coincidence that these two stories have surfaced around the same time but it does bring up the question of what exactly is pushing these high caliber athletes to the edge? In most cases these people are on the road to a type of fame and fortune us mere mortals can only dream about but this could be part of the problem. Perhaps the social skills and education they receive is different because of their exceptional athletic abilities—not allowing them to excel in certain things. Regardless I think it would be interesting to see the statistics of the number of professional athletes that suffer from depression, when the pressure of performance meets personal problems its interesting to see how this elite level of athletes handle it—they are viewed as such physicals strong individuals that there emotions aren’t even considered, what’s happening in recent times will with out a doubt change the way view and understand these professional athletes.