Ole Miss Matt Coral on fighting mental illness
A subject that has been a much bigger part of the sports world in the last few years is mental health. In fact, in 2019, the NFL and NFL Players Association formed a mental health and wellness committee to develop relevant programs and resources for players, coaches, and other staff members. Multiple NFL players spoke out during the past seasons about having some mental struggles. Those include Solomon Thomas, DJ Chark, Brandon Marshall and others. It was a great sign to see that these players were not afraid to speak out.
Yesterday, Ole Miss quarterback and top draft prospect had an interview with Yahoo Sports. He spoke about the struggles he dealt with in the last few years.
He mentioned that he was in a depression during his sophomore year at Ole Miss. «I was still training, and it just felt like I was just going through the motions. It just felt like I was being stagnant. There was no purpose as to what I was doing.»
Corral started all of his team's games in his sophomore and junior season. He was truly dominant on the field and from the outside, you could have never guessed that he was dealing with those kinds of things.
«I just remember crying on the couch before my flight going home and just wondering why the heck I'm feeling like this,» Corral said. «And I had that mindset of not taking no as an answer. That's when my whole work ethic changed.»
Coral had an amazing college career and he will be in the mix for the top quarterback drafted in this years' draft. He then mentioned that he is feeling way better nowadays and that the fact that he was not afraid to talk about his problems helped. He did not share his story to have sympathy from the outside world. He did so because he wanted to show that everyone was allowed to have struggles and that you should speak out.
He finished the interview by saying: "I'm more happy now,» he said, «and I'm very grateful that certain situations happened even though I felt as if I wasn't ready (to deal with them at the time). But it got me to where I am today.»
