Mental Health is a Issue that needs More Awareness.

Written By: Landon Pulmano

Contributor | Sideline Society Media

Three young men who have taken their own lives have shaken up the football world. In less than a year, football lost Kyren Lacy, Marshawn Kneeland, and Rondale Moore players in their mid twenties whose lives and careers were just beginning to take shape.

On the final day of the NFL Draft, as cameras tracked the dreams of young players finally being realized, Kyren Lacy was being buried. Months earlier, the former LSU wide receiver had been one of the most electrifying players in the SEC, preparing for his own chance at the league. But in April 2025, at just 24 years old, Lacy died by suicide during a police chase after a series of legal and personal pressures unraveled the final chapter of his life.

Kneeland, a rising defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys, had just celebrated the first touchdown of his NFL career days before he died while quietly carrying the grief of losing his mother. Moore, once one of the most explosive young receivers in the game, had spent two seasons fighting through injuries in hopes of reclaiming his career before his life ended at just 25.

Their deaths are separate tragedies, but together they reveal something deeper about the culture of football a sport that has long demanded toughness while leaving little space for vulnerability.

From college locker rooms to NFL facilities, players are taught to play through pain, conceal weakness, and protect their roster spot at all costs. Meanwhile the pressures of performance, identity, injury, and the looming shadow of brain trauma like CTE continue to mount beneath the helmet. Research shows roughly one nthird of collegiate athletes experience depression or anxiety, and repeated head trauma has been linked to severe mood disorders and impaired judgment.

The NFL has expanded mental health resources in recent years, but resources alone cannot dismantle a culture built on silence.

The game has always been obsessed with repairing the body measuring it, strengthening it, rebuilding it.

The mind, far too often, has been left to fend for itself.

And until football learns how to care for both, the price of the sport may continue to be paid in the lives of the young men who play it.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States. 9-8-8 is available via call or text, and online chat.