NYJ Solomon Thomas Shares His Family’s Loss in Hopes of Helping Others in Mental Health

Pivot Podcast

The Pivot Podcast Network

Sports, Football, Society & Culture

4.9 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Today we are bringing you a special show and are extremely grateful to New York Jets Defensive Tackle, Solomon Thomas for opening up and sharing his story with the world on how tragedy struck his family and using that loss to help others work through depression, anxiety and understand mental health affects us all, no matter how strong we are. As the 2017, number 3 overall NFL draft pick, Solomon entered the league filled with positive expectations and a path of promise with the 49ers when a year later, his beautiful sister took her own life after struggling with depression, anxiety and PTSD. Solomon courageously and emotionally shares how his sister struggled with certain sides of her mental health and how her life ending tragedy became a painful lesson and teaching tool for his life’s purpose beyond playing football. Dealing with the aftermath and fighting through guilt while overcoming the stigma that being a NFL player makes him tough or not allowed to feel certain emotions, Solomon created a foundation and dedicated a large part of his life to helping others and being an advocate for mental health in his sister’s memory. Relying on his NFL family to keep him grounded and football still being his number one passion, Solomon formed a special bond and turned to Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Dak Prescott who shared a similar family tragedy as him, and used the strength Dak portrayed to help guide him on his purpose outside of the NFL. Dak showed Solomon that it’s ok to not be on certain days and helped inspire him to turn his loss into faith for others who may be helped by hearing his story. Although this conversation is a tough one to have, it’s an important one filled with vulnerability and accountability in overcoming certain life obstacles while maintaining the strength to accept the emotions associated with struggle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	May is mental health awareness month. It's a month that we've designated to
0:05.0	remind us that there are people that go through seemingly
0:09.0	unwindable fights each and every day on a daily basis. But unfortunately so many
0:15.6	of us don't need to be reminded. We don't need to be reminded that there are
0:20.2	days we can't get out of bed or that there are days that the anxiety is so
0:25.1	heavy on our chest. We can't breathe. Or days that are so long and grueling and
0:33.4	tough that we feel like not breathing at all is the easier way. When I was 18 my
0:40.8	friend of mine decided that not breathing at all was better. We played at the
0:45.8	same little league playground, graduated from the same high school. He was even
0:50.6	one of my hosts when I visited LSU and he was a dude like he was a dog. He could
0:56.6	ball. He was a freaking adult. He lived off campus. He had a fiance. He had a
1:00.7	daughter. He was somebody I looked up to. What I remember about the day before he
1:07.7	died was he asked me three questions. He asked you good? Which if you're from
1:15.0	boot you know what that means. That means what the next question said. Are you
1:20.1	okay and he said do you need anything? I don't really remember how I answered
1:26.4	that because I was more so just making fun of him that he finally decided to
1:30.6	hang out. But there is something I don't remember about that day. I don't
1:35.6	remember if I ever asked him back. I mean I guess when you're 18 and somebody's
1:40.0	asking if you are right you think to yourself that that person is the strong one
1:44.3	and if he has time to ask me what's going on with me then shortly he's okay.
1:50.0	But I'm old enough to know now that the strongest of us fight the biggest and
1:53.8	the baddest and the most relentless demons. For people who are going through it I
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Pivot Podcast Network, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Pivot Podcast Network and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.