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Talk on mental health shows Rock Hill's football heroes are human. And that's powerful

Herald - 5/9/2021

May 9—"There's no athlete who has played any sport and has walked away on their own terms."

Chris Hope said that on Saturday afternoon.

Yes, that Chris Hope. The Hope who departed from Rock Hill High School as one of the best defensive backs in his class in the country. The Hope who went on to play football and start at Florida State. The Hope who spent 12 years in the NFL, inspiring generations of kids after him who would try to contribute to the weighty football legacy of their Rock Hill hometown — one that's affectionately called "Football City USA."

"Playing the game of football since I was 7 years old, that was the only job I'd ever had. It was the only thing I'd ever done," he said.

Back when he was growing up, football was a means to an education, he said. It was "always his Plan B."

"I think with this spotlight we've gotten over 'Football City USA,' I think we focus so much on that that they only have that in their minds," Hope said. "And they feel as though if they don't make it, they've failed."

At a panel about football and mental health on Saturday, accomplished football figures from Rock Hill — youth football coach Perry Sutton; Perry's college-football-playing son, Najee; and former Dallas Cowboy DeVonte Holloman — shared deeply personal stories about their football careers and their struggles with mental health. At times, like Hope did above, they shared community concerns, too.

The talk was fascinating. It was wide-ranging. It was sincere.

It began with WRHI's Chris Miller, who moderated the event, telling the well-known story of the origins of Rock Hill's favorite moniker. Miller then pointed out that it had already been a difficult 2021 for everyone in that room — a group that represented a city that's still healing after losing several of its own to suicide and/or gun violence in the past two years, none more publicly than former Rock Hill High alum and NFL player Phillip Adams, who was the gunman in an April 7 mass shooting who shot and killed six people before killing himself.

Miller then asked questions, and the players and coach and two mental health professionals, Dr. Joanna Jackson and Ernest Brown, spoke. They all listened. They all shared stories. They all showed a vulnerable side of themselves.

We saw Perry Sutton as more than the youth football coach who, at one point or another, has coached 15 of the 30-plus players to make the NFL from Rock Hill. We saw him, instead, as a troubled mentor calling all his former players this past month to check on them. ("How are you doing? No, how are you really doing?") We saw him as a father. We saw him as a man who, after spending 30 years in the Coast Guard, admits that he had trouble adjusting back to civilian life, just like a lot of the NFL players admit to doing after years in the league.

We saw DeVonte Holloman as more than a South Pointe football and USC football great who got drafted by the Dallas Cowboys before returning to coach his high school alma mater. We saw him, instead, as someone who at times is still bothered by the fact that a neck injury ended his pro football career — a career he worked his whole life for — before it got off the ground. We saw someone whose sister took her own life in October 2018. He's still healing from that.

Without belaboring the point: We saw certain football figures, who so many kids from Rock Hill think they want to one day be, as humans.

With human frustrations. With human sadness. With human concerns.

With human struggles — self-doubt, anxiety, depression — that extend off the field.

With human burdens not always remedied, and at times exacerbated, by their talent for and connection to Football City USA's favorite game.

I encourage you to set aside an hour and a half to watch this discussion in full. I encourage you to ask questions: If these players have suffered self-doubt, who hasn't?

Is this a community issue? If so, what needs to be done?

If Rock Hill considers its best football players heroes, then them leading this vulnerable discussion was all the more powerful. Some, like me, might say it was heroic in and of itself.

Watch full stream of 'Football City USA tackles mental health' below

Use this link or view the video below.

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