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Athens, GA (Sept 14, 2008) - Terry Bradshaw, through the audience of the FOX NFL Sunday pre-game show, today spoke to Vince Young and the challenges he is facing. These challenges apparently include depression and thoughts of suicide, which is pretty scary:

“First, Vince, it was disturbing news to hear you were thinking about suicide. You have to be kidding me! You are too young, you have too much talent and the world is your oyster. You’re depressed because of the boos. Listen, I was a former No. 1 pick myself, you get booed. I got called dumb, stupid, Ozark Ike, couldn’t spell cat with a C and a T if it was given to me.

But you learn how to deal with that. You have to find a spot in your life that you say to yourself, am I going to allow these fans to dictate my future and force me to quit because I can’t deal with this?

I tell you what, clean that house out, get rid of all your friends that are telling you how great you are. Keep your momma, but get rid of everybody else. Surround yourself with your football family, get up in there with those veterans, listen to that head coach and get centered on playing football. Never give up on a dream, never! This has been your dream, this is God’s gift to you and my young man, my friend, all of us know, you can do this and we are rooting for you.”

While it was clear that Bradshaw was speaking from his heart, he may have missed a golden opportunity to talk about his battles with depression, that has been detailed in U.S. News and World Report, USA Today, Parade Magazine and other places.

This week, there is an ADHD Awareness Marathon taking place online, and depression is often related to ADHD. It is too bad Bradshaw could not have injected more of his own experiences into what he said to Young on the air today.

Related Link(s)

• Parade Magazine: Too Tough to Seek Help (June 20, 2004)
• USA Today: Terry Bradshaw's winning drive against depression (Jan 30, 2004)
• ADHD Awareness Marathon

Photo from Wikipedia.