Of all the leadership challenges we’ve written about over the past seven years, none may be more important than keying in on the mental health challenges the world’s elite athletes face and how those challenges are influencing topics such as suicide, sexual and domestic violence, and impaired performance.
This was certainly made clear recently when one of us met Don McPherson, an avowed feminist who spent seven years as an NFL and CFL quarterback, and talked to him about his concerns for the NCAA, NFL, “gendered violence” and where our sporting culture is taking us.
“The ubiquitous nature of sports culture and organizations such as the NCAA make it that any illicit behavior by athletes immediately becomes ‘high profile’ and viewed as a byproduct of the culture,” said McPherson, who was a runner-up for the 1987 Heisman Trophy while at Syracuse (and winner that year of the O’Brien and Unitas awards for best college quarterback). “That inevitably leads to the flawed search for solutions in the culture itself.
“This is not to say that sport is not part of the problem but, if we only consider troubling behavior of athletes in the aftermath and see them only as athletes, as endemic and unique to sports culture … then we will approach solutions that are reactionary and prioritize protection of the culture from the next [big incident]. We fail to engage the real work of viewing [male] ‘athletes’ as men influenced by a force greater than sports culture — the personal and social impact of the mandate of masculinity is toxic to all men. Sports does not protect athletes. It accentuates the toxicity.”
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Former NFL quarterback Don McPherson says sports accentuates “the toxicity of masculinity.”
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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We feel McPherson’s concerns warrant full consideration, and elements of this narrative arrived during a recent presentation to the 1A Faculty Athletic Representatives in Dallas. The presentations covered material from studies conducted under the auspices of the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute. Consider the following:
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25 percent of all incoming NCAA student athletes enter their respective institution taking some kind of psychotropic drug for depression, attention deficit or anxiety.
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Approximately 10 percent of all student athletes in college (regardless of division) consume more than 10 drinks in a single setting or drinking experience.
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The third-highest cause of death for NCAA student athletes is suicide behind accidents and cardiac failure. In the area of accidents, there is a strong suspicion that many may have been caused by depression or the mixture of alcohol and drugs associated with stress.
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Willingness to intervene in a situation that could lead to inappropriate sexual behavior varies greatly by gender but in both cases (men, 63 percent; women, 71 percent) the willingness to intervene is notably low.
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A culture of toughness in sports is often likely to inhibit athletes from seeking help for mental health challenges.
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Lack of sleep combined with stress related to classroom performance, interpersonal relationships and “playing time” means many student athletes have less ability to multitask and to recall knowledge, thus mental health challenges may often develop.
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NCAA student athletes are more likely to be in fights, to be physically assaulted, to be verbally threatened and to be sexually assaulted than most students on a campus.
These facts or summarized statements are not meant to suggest the NCAA or its member institutions are not taking a number of steps toward doing the right thing in the area of mental health and sexual violence but that the strong culture associated with college sports also means every university must bring a much greater sensitivity to the ongoing welfare of its vulnerable student athletes.
“Male athletes are particularly vulnerable because of what I refer to as the mandate of masculinity,” McPherson said. “The irony of the mandate is how it enforces the very qualities that have traditionally defined successful athletes. Being tough, strong, courageous and emotionally guarded are among the very few acceptable qualities of masculine expression and what we want from our [male] athletes.”
McPherson, who has been working on the masculinity mandate for more than 20 years, went on to add, “If we look beyond the reactionary need to ‘prevent’ the next incident, we can work to develop the whole athlete, by considering emotional, psychological and mental health as equally important as physical ability and prowess. We don’t coach athletes to ‘not lose,’ we coach and aspire towards excellence and maximizing skills. In our [current] culture, we don’t raise boys to men, we raise them not to be women. That undercurrent of the mandate creates the hierarchal gender binary that teaches boys to see girls as ‘less than.’”
McPherson knows firsthand what it is like to be the star quarterback on a winning team. He also knows the pressures and historical weaknesses of the college sports system have consistently caused universities and their teams to get things wrong. Wrong at a time when Title IX is less about equal opportunity to play and more about recognizing how the Office of Civil Rights is investigating universities for not creating a safe atmosphere for all students regardless of gender identification, race, sexual orientation or ability/disability.
“We must raise boys with the same excellence we hope for them as athletes, using all the skills of our humanity,” McPherson concluded. “We must move beyond simply trying to prevent athletes from committing sexual assault and deliberately nurture and respect their capacity as whole men. The ultimate irony of the mandate is that courage and strength are required from sports leaders to dismantle and disarm the toxicity of masculinity.”
For many, the concepts raised above are daunting. They represent a significant challenge to the way things have “long been.” As researchers and commentators, we hope McPherson’s gauntlet, once laid down, causes leaders in the NCAA and every professional sport to start picking it up and making things better.
Rick Burton (rhburton@syr.edu) is the David Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and SU’s faculty athletics representative to the ACC and NCAA. Norm O’Reilly (oreillyn@ohio.edu) is the Richard P. & Joan S. Fox Professor of Business and chair of the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University.
