For years and years the NFL has stated its commitment to helping players with their mental health problems but only marginally improving conditions for them. However, a new plan from the league owners may be their biggest improvement yet.
According to NFL insider Judy Battista via Ari Meirov, the NFL owners have improved an expansion to their current mental health and behavioral services benefits. Under the rule, teams will now have a full-time mental health clinician at their facility for players to utilize.
"NFL owners have approved an expansion of behavioral and mental health services. Teams must now have a full-time mental health clinician at their facility, per @judybattista," Meirov wrote on X.
A positive step
Mental health became a major talking about earlier this offseason when wide receiver Rondale Moore tragically took his own life. Whether or not this move was specifically a response to that tragedy or not, it's the right move - and fans were happy to see it.
"Finally some real accountability. Having a full-time mental health clinician on-site changes the game for NFL players and staff alike," one user on X replied.
"Every team required to have a full-time clinician… that’s a big step in the right direction," wrote another.
"Great news here, and this should have already been a thing, So many men struggle in silence and don’t have the proper outlets or comfort to be open about the struggles they face and we’ve been losing to many young men Glad the league is opening up avenues for those struggling," a third wrote.
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However, some users have pointed out that it's not necessarily going to change things. The main reason is that many teams reportedly have on-site mental health clinicians by choice. While this decision no longer makes it a choice for the few teams that don't, it might not be the seismic change that it appears to be on paper.
Even so, every positive change is one worth praising.
