The noise of the crowd can drown out the struggles many athletes face daily. The bright lights, constant travel and nonstop judgment from the public often hide a grind that does not end when the game clock does.
This past year has brought losses that force a harder look at how teams and players handle mental health and how fans can sometimes bring the noise to a level that only creates more problems than solutions.
I am a first-year at Quinnipiac who loves to write, especially about sports. I deal with ADHD, anxiety, PTSD and depression daily. Some days are good. Other days are tough, but I can find support from friends and family, and I know I belong.
I mention my own struggles because these are issues that athletes often face more severely than I do, mainly because they lack access to support or choose not to seek it due to fear of scrutiny.
We live in a world that supports mental health more than ever, but sports always seem to be hit-or-miss. Players often hesitate to express their struggles because they believe it shows weakness or that they cannot handle pressure.
As fans, we play a major role in shaping the conversations surrounding athletes. Social media has never been bigger, and it has only given us a more direct way to express our anger.
We must recognize that players are human and deserve the same respect, regardless of their success, financial status or if they sold your parlay. There is no reason to attack them with messages that no one should ever read.
However, we have seen too many cases where fans have to look in the mirror and realize they may have played a role in someone’s death because of what they said.
Former Louisiana State University wide receiver Kyren Lacy died by suicide during a police pursuit near Houston on April 12. He was 24-years-old and days away from a grand jury hearing connected to charges from a December 2024 crash in Louisiana that killed 78-year-old Herman Hall. Now, regardless of whether he was guilty or not, it was the response of thousands of people on social media calling him a thug and other hateful messages that sent him down a path that few people come back from.
What makes it worse is that this October, the Louisiana State Police released surveillance video they say shows Lacy passing four vehicles at high speed through a no-passing zone moments before the chain-reaction crash. However, it shows inconsistencies because Lacy appeared to be so far behind.
Those details will never be settled in court, which leaves a family and a community to carry the loss of someone who may have been innocent all along.
Heartbreaking as this was, online pressure is not new and is more common now than ever before.
A recent NCAA study found over 5,000 abusive or threatening posts aimed at athletes. Twelve percent were linked to sports betting, totaling more than 740 messages. The increase in sports betting matched a rise in harassment, particularly in men’s basketball and football, where rates reached 19%.
Racist abuse made up 10% of cases, homophobic or transphobic remarks were 9% and 6%, or approximately 380 cases, were violent. Messages intensified during March Madness, with 80% directed at participating student-athletes. Alarmingly, women’s basketball student-athletes faced nearly three times more threats compared to men’s basketball players.
The NBA conducted a 2025 report that found NBA players routinely receive death threats and racial slurs from anonymous accounts, often linked to sports betting losses.
During the 2022 World Cup, FIFA flagged 19,600 abusive posts and hid 286,000 comments before players saw them. Artificial Intelligence identified 300 individuals for referral to law enforcement, with racism, homophobia and sexism dominating the messages.
The psychological toll this places on anyone — not just athletes — is heart-wrenching. How can anyone justify sending these messages to anyone and think it’s alright?
I will give credit to all Major Sports leagues for the vast improvement in addressing Mental Health. The NFL and NFLPA now promote mental health resources throughout a player’s career, including confidential counseling, a 24/7 crisis line for current and former players and education that aims to normalize seeking help.
The NBA Mind Health Program provides access to licensed mental health professionals, psychiatrists and mental performance consultants for players, coaches and referees.
Each team must retain at least one mental health professional and have an emergency action plan.
The MLBPA Mental Health & Wellness Program is independent from teams to ensure confidentiality. Special resources are available for Spanish-speaking players, which make up nearly one-third of MLB rosters.
For the NHL, their First Line Program is a peer-to-peer mental health education for players and agents, developed with the Mental Health Commission of Canada. The NHL Player Assistance Program is a confidential support for mental health and substance abuse issues, with players still being paid while receiving care.
The NCAA updated its Mental Health Best Practices back in 2024, which now include mandatory annual mental health screenings for student-athletes, written action plans for emergencies, referral pathways and the requirement that licensed providers provide all mental health care. Division I schools must provide these services by November 2025.
Countless leagues are doing similar things, but in many ways, it may not be enough. Fans are the backbone of sports,
but their comments are not just limited to social media.
In June of 2025, second baseman for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Ketel Marte, was brought to tears in the middle of the game against the Chicago White Sox when a fan yelled comments about Marte’s late mother.
I know what words can do. A single harsh remark can feel like a weight you cannot shake. For athletes, that weight multiplies when millions are watching and thousands are typing. Martle was unfortunately caught in the crossfire, which includes so many more examples.
During the Indian Wells Tennis tournament, a heckler shouted at the Japanese player Naomi Osaka, who fought back tears on the court. She later told the crowd that the moment echoed old footage of U.S. players Serena and Venus Williams being abused at the same event, and that it stuck in her head throughout the entire match.
In the NBA, we have the Utah Jazz permanently banning a fan after point guard Russell Westbrook said he was targeted with a racist taunt in 2019. Westbrook has also described how public name-shaming spilled into his home life, with security removing hecklers in later incidents as he drew a line about protecting his family name.
Recently, we have seen San Diego Padres Manager Mike Shildt retire due to mental stress after receiving death threats. During this year’s MLB Playoffs, Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler and Blue Jays rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage pleaded with fans to stop harassing their families.
What I have listed above was not that hard to find. People may ask how? Well, because it is so common that a simple “mental health in sports” Google search can lead you to half of what is in this article.
You think I like writing an article about these terrible situations? No, I hate it because this should not be as common as it is. People need to understand what constitutes going too far.
A story about a British tennis player Emma Raducanu, about how she deleted her social media accounts after relentless trolling and even stalking incidents that left her in tears during matches, constitutes going too far. She commented on how she literally couldn’t see the ball through her tears.
Then we have Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran sharing his own mental health struggles that nearly led to him taking his life. He reflected on how he reached a point where he was in his room, had his rifle, a bullet, pulled the trigger and the gun clicked, but nothing happened.
Those were two of the hardest articles to read for me because you have people who are breaking down in front of the world, and all people can do is point and take pleasure in their struggles instead of trying to help. I can personally relate to this pain, as I have struggled with my place in this world, which ultimately led me to a very dark time in my life.
Back in August 2024, I almost took my own life. I had reached my all-time low and felt helpless. I did not know who to talk to, as I did not even feel comfortable talking to my own parents. I realized that I had been misdiagnosed with ADHD after 17 years, and after I started taking medications and going to a counseling center, I started feeling like myself again. There are so many people I could not even begin to thank for my still being alive today, which makes me feel even more grateful for the support I had.
The reasons I am saying all of this publicly for the first time are that I know the struggles, and writing this article at times got really hard for me. Seeing people like me dealing with the same things and breaking it all down is never easy, but it is necessary to raise awareness of something I, and so many other people, care about.
There is still so much good in this world that should never go unnoticed, despite the shadow that negativity casts.
Fans have the power to use their influence for the greater good, and there are so many cases where that is still the truth. After Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner joined the team in the 2023 season, he was on a bad slump throughout the summer. Then, in a three-game series between the Phillies and Kansas City Royals, it changed everything as Phillies fans tweeted how they should give a standing ovation during every one of Turner’s at-bats. The result led to his best series in months and got him out of his slump. This story would become an Emmy Award-winning documentary called “The Turnaround,” which highlights how fans uniting can be a sign of good faith that all fan bases should practice.
Gymnast Simon Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics back in 2021, due to mental health reasons and received nothing but love and support from fans worldwide. Then we have a very recent example. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia missed this year’s World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays due to a family emergency. The response was prayers from thousands of fans who hoped everything was alright.
So what can fans, players, coaches, executives and the media do to help? Well, it’s quite simple, really.
Coaches can set aside time for counseling without penalty and make confidentiality clear. Teammates and classmates can ask twice and listen longer. Media can lead with accuracy over speed when a story is still unfolding. Finally, fans should understand that what they say matters, so holding back their anger and stopping themselves from saying something no person should hear will only help us grow as people.
So I leave everyone with this. I may no longer be a sports player, which could make what I have said seem less serious. However, I do know the struggle of being trapped inside your head and always feeling that you’re not good enough. Imagine how those thoughts run through a player’s mind every game.
The choice is ours. If we want sports to be a place where strength includes vulnerability, then empathy has to be part of the game plan. Because in the end, the loudest cheers should be for life itself.
