CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

'Unconscious rage': In wake of Myles Garrett incident, professionals believe NFL lagging behind other leagues in mental health treatment

Akron Beacon Journal - 11/23/2019

Denise Shull wishes Browns defensive end Myles Garrett had screamed at Mason Rudolph, "'You (bleep), I want to rip your (bleeping) head off.'"

Without the bleeps, that is.

Growing up in Firestone Park and graduating from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy and the University of Akron, Shull wasn't just saying that as a lifelong Browns fan who idolized Clay Matthews during her season-ticket holder days in the 1980s.

Shull, 60, founder, CEO and lead performance coach of The ReThink Group in New York City, holds a Master of Arts degree in neuropsychoanalysis. She believes the NFL is failing to help its players handle the kind of emotion that led to what she called the "unconscionable" Nov. 14 incident when Garrett hit Steelers quarterback Rudolph in the head with his own helmet.

Shull wishes she could help Garrett cope with his indefinite league suspension, as well as teach the Browns a strategy to openly express their feelings in order to handle them. She believes if Garrett had voiced his rage, the helmet swing that miraculously did not injure Rudolph and the ensuing melee might have been prevented.

"It's how to turn unpleasant, uncomfortable, unacceptable feelings you have into fuel," Shull said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "How to turn it into focus, how to turn it into fuel, how to turn it into execution. Not destructive execution.

"Basically at the end of the day there's all kinds of upside to directly dealing with fear, frustration and disappointment and no one in the NFL is doing it."

Shull isn't the only professional who believes the NFL is lagging behind.

Sam Maniar, 45, founder of the Center for Peak Performance in Hudson, worked for the Browns for two seasons starting in 2014 and said the team was a trailblazer. But Maniar was let go in the regime change after coach Mike Pettine and General Manager Ray Farmer were fired.

"I was actually the second person they hired. When I was there, I was the only full-time psychologist in the NFL," Maniar said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I think we had the foundations of something really special and unique and different."

Maniar called what the Browns were doing "very cutting edge," and said the league was going to recommend the 31 other teams follow the Browns' model. But it wasn't until this season when the NFL mandated each team must hire a licensed clinician to spend eight to 12 hours a week at the facility.

"This is an NFL thing, not a Browns thing," Maniar said. "I think If the NFL really wants to address mental health, then they've got to put their money where their mouth is and it needs to be a full-time position within the building and not somebody who is coming in periodically."

When Maniar was on the Browns' staff, he traveled with the team and was constantly around. He believes that's the key to developing trust to better help the players.

"My problem with this is you have a group of people who are guarded, rightfully so, because of their public persona, because of their status," Maniar said. "Because they're men and because they're athletes, we have historically stigmatized them seeking out help for mental health. Then you're going to expect them to utilize a resource that is only around occasionally in the building. I just don't think that model is going to work.

"I think the person has to be there in meetings, I think they have to be there on the sideline, I think they have to be there in locker room. In order to build that trust they have to be seen as a member of the staff."

The Cavaliers have a full-time sports psychologist and five-time All-Star forward Kevin Love has made mental health his cause after revealing in March, 2018 he had sought therapy after experiencing panic attacks. In August, the NBA instituted requirements for this season that includes retaining one or two licensed clinical mental health professionals and identifying an available licensed psychiatrist.

Maniar said Major League Baseball also recognizes the importance of psychology.

"You will not find a single team that doesn't have a whole staff of psychologists working in baseball. Part of the difference, baseball is more about development than the NFL," said Maniar, a Mentor High school graduate who returned to Northeast Ohio in 2007. He's also contracted to work with athletes at the University of Akron and the SPIRE Institute. "Right now, if you don't work out, 'I'm going to cut you and try the next person.' Baseball has embraced psychology as the next competitive advantage. I think you're starting to see it in basketball now; it's a much more manageable roster.

"For whatever reason, the NFL just isn't ready. Unfortunately, of the big sports, professional football is one of the last to embrace it."

In regards to Garrett, Maniar said the Browns seemed to be "moving in the right direction" in terms of discipline and penalties, "then you have this incident that was a confluence of so many things all going wrong at the same time."

"I think Maurkice Pouncey said he doesn't remember, he blacked out and I believe that," Maniar said of the Steelers' center who punched and kicked Garrett and had his suspension reduced to two games. "If anyone has experienced rage or has talked to somebody who's had extreme rage, I wouldn't be surprised if Myles Garrett doesn't remember it. I think they just kind of went purely biological and physiological; I couldn't speak to what triggered it."

As to whether an anger management program might help those involved, Maniar said, "They by and large are not very effective."

Maniar and Shull both want the same thing for the NFL and the Browns, but their methods are distinctly different.

About 15 years ago, Shull realized science viewed human behavior as emotion-based and found the subject resonated with stock traders. She became a skills coach who teaches strategies to overcome mental mistakes, confidence crises and slumps. Expanding into sports, Olympic snowboarder Lindsay Jacobellis is among those she's helped.

"You have to work at the emotional level to change the behavior. And people aren't doing that because they haven't been trained to do that," Shull said.

"The Browns have a whole set of feelings that I don't think are being addressed and they could and it would be effective and they would be better. They would have fewer penalties, absolutely no doubt."

Shull said if she had a chance to work with the Browns, that's where she would start.

"You could get them to talk about those fouls, about how they happened, about which calls they feel are unfair. But you're really trying to get to what are the feelings that are causing them to do it," Shull said. "Is it they want to win so bad? Is it they want the personal whatever? There's a pattern there, there's something there. I can't say it's unconscious rage in all cases, but there's probably a thread of that.

"What probably happens, though, if they go to talk about that, they get shut down. They're told to think positive and put it behind them. But they can't do it because they feel unfairly treated."

Shull agreed the Browns need to get those issues out in the open to get over them.

"Exactly. But there is very little room in professional sports to do that. It's totally time to change," she said.

"You have to let them talk about how badly they want to win, how badly they want to chop the other guy's arm off, let them put it into words. If they do, that allows them to go do the list of things they know they need to do to make that outcome happen."

Shull wasn't just thinking of Garrett, but the Browns' failures the past 20 years. Even though she couldn't remember quarterback Derek Anderson's name, she recalled the 2007 Browns, who went 10-6 and missed the playoffs as Anderson threw four interceptions in a 19-14 December loss at Cincinnati.

"We were on the third interception. He went to the sidelines and I knew it was like, 'Put it behind you, forget about it,' and he went out and threw the fourth interception," Shull said. "I was like, 'Oh, my God, I wish I could be there.' I would have [told him to say], 'I hate myself, I'm an idiot, I ruined the game.' Let him feel the shame, then go back out and execute on that feeling.

"There aren't many people out there who can help an athlete talk about how ashamed they are, how infuriated they are and help the athlete realize there's a good reason for those feelings. You may not want to act them out, you may not want to let the public know you have them, but in their pure form those feelings are meant to help you."

While she and Maniar wait for NFL progress, Shull laughed about her dream scenario of being the hometown girl who returns to save the Browns.

"I just happen to have this unique body of knowledge," Shull said, "and I just happen to care."

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/browns. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

___

(c)2019 the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

Visit the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) at www.ohio.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.