This news about Beard comes less than two weeks after this came out: ‘(Nebraska Football Coach) Mickey Joseph Arrested For Assault’.
The legal process will play out with both of these situations. And personal judgments must be kept in check until all the facts come out. BUT... one wonder’s if there is something emerging here.
Coaches live with a great deal of stress and pressure. It never lets up and follows them everywhere from home to job to media gatherings looking to make news.
Most coaches seem to be able to handle these pressures and stresses without breaking. But some can’t.
Both Texas and Nebraska are big-time programs with very high fan and institutional expectations and great histories to try to live up to. This adds yet another layer of pressure and stress on everyone involved – the coach, the coach’s family, friends, co-workers, etc.
Maybe things are just becoming too much to handle for some individuals.
Much is done about the physical health of persons involved in sports teams. The finest in professional care and facilities. The finest in weight rooms, etc.
Maybe it’s time to put more emphasis on building up the mental health care facilities that serve players and maybe the coaches as well.
Perhaps a coach would be hesitant to visit a mental health professional and consider that a sign of weakness or being ‘un-manly. If so, that kind of attitude has to stop. It is a sign of strength to seek out help when things don’t seem right. And there should be no stigma whatsoever held against a person with the courage to seek out help when they need it.
So as the pressures of College Ball get more and more intense... the need for care and a healthy safety-value for that stress grows by the day. It’s time for institutions to start to get ahead of this right now.
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