Former Broncos running back Montee Ball Jr. was living out his dream after being drafted by his favorite NFL team growing up (the Denver Broncos). But behind closed doors, Ball was struggling mentally. The pressure to perform and win eventually pushed Ball to rely on alcohol to cope. Now using his platform for mental health advocacy in sports, Ball states “for me, just that relationship with the bottle, dealing with suffering and silence, being too afraid to open up and to speak about what I’m going through, are things, of course, that we’re still seeing today, that we’re trying to de-stigmatize.” After facing learning who he was outside of football, Ball turned towards helping others who are in similar positions. He recently supported a bill at the Colorado State Capitol that would require youth coaches to take an annual mental health education course and to discuss with parents the relationship between concussions and mental health — a step in the right direction for ensuring that...