Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick, hosted the Young 9 Foundation’s CareSource Football Procamp, emphasizing mental health awareness for youth. Reflecting on his own childhood experiences with legends like Kobe Bryant, he’s committed to providing kids with memorable opportunities. This second annual camp featured Panther coaches and teammates, fostering a supportive environment for campers while instilling the significance of mental health. Young, raised in a household that valued emotional well-being, seeks to eliminate stigma for others and equip them with essential tools.

By the Numbers

• This is the second year for the Young 9 Foundation camp in Charlotte.
• Young hosted over 100 children at the Procamp.

State of Play

• The camp occurred between OTAs and the Panthers‘ minicamp, creating a unique atmosphere amidst the NFL schedule.
• Younger players, including teammates and coaches, participated to share insights and support the initiative.

What’s Next

As Young embarks on his third season with the Panthers, he aims to continue expanding the Young 9 Foundation’s reach and influence, with future camps and initiatives focused on youth mental health awareness.

Bottom Line

The Young 9 Foundation’s camp exemplifies Bryce Young’s dedication to mentoring youth and prioritizing mental health, highlighting the importance of giving back and fostering emotional resilience in the next generation.

Simone Biles has 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship wins. She is considered one of the best gymnasts of all time. Still, even she has to deal with negativity online.

“That was hard for me to wrap my head around,” Biles, 28, told the audience during her first visit to Hong Kong last week.

Reading such harsh words can be difficult, so she has learned to protect herself.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As June marks Men’s Mental Health Month, a Jacksonville mental health counselor talked about ways to break the stigma around the topic.

WATCH: Local group works to help men tackle mental, physical health

Mental health can be a tough topic for anyone, but for men, talking about it can feel even harder.

“I would say Men’s Mental Health Month is an opportunity to highlight the fact that men also have mental health,” Melissa Brown said. “Men also have emotions, feelings, thoughts, they also endure mental health struggles.”

Over 6 million men suffer from depression per year, but male depression often goes underdiagnosed, according to data from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Brown said outdated ideas about masculinity can make it harder for men to ask for help.

“In men, depression can sometimes present in anger and irritability, and people see that in men and they think, ‘oh you know, he’s just being a man,’” Brown said. “When really there’s a possibility that he could be suffering from feelings of deep sadness or depression.”

Experts said toxic masculinity — the idea that men should always be tough, unemotional, and self-reliant — often prevents them from acknowledging what they’re going through.

“I actually meet with a lot of men in my practice, and I encourage them to take it slow and maybe practice with expressing more of the positive emotions,” Brown said. “Practicing expressing those emotions a bit more could be less challenging and then working your way up to more of the difficult emotions.”

Whether it’s a friend, a loved one, a doctor, or a counselor, reaching out can make all the difference.

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Bryce Young has been on a bumpy ride with the Carolina Panthers since being drafted, and it even took a toll on him last season. Unlike many others, the former number one overall pick has decided to speak openly about his mental health struggles. Prompting a conversation that not many fans, players, or coaches want to have around the league.

There’s always been a stigma about mental health struggles as an athlete. When Dak Prescott opened up about it in 2020, the response was somewhat deflected by the public. Negative attitudes and biases have seemingly discouraged some athletes of older generations from speaking out. Whether it be something external, like a family issue, or something internal, like their level of play.

It’s no secret that ever since being selected number one overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, Bryce Young has struggled to find his footing. In 28 career starts, he’s won just 6 games. And all of the losses have weighed heavily on him mentally. Young opened up about it while discussing the stigma surrounding the topic.

“There’s definitely been a big stigma around [discussing mental health in] athletics for a long time. For me, I like to deal and live in the truth. I’m super grateful to have my profession. I’m super passionate about it, but we’re all human,” he told GQ Sports.

“People, a lot of times, think that we don’t have the same struggles, we don’t deal with the same things. Our lives, at times, maybe can look different from others, but it’s all a set of circumstances. The makeup of who we are, what we go through from an emotional level, it’s all the same,” he added.

Young explained how he comes from a family that works as therapists and counselors. His father, Craig, is a mental health therapist and played an instrumental role in his upbringing. His mother, Julie, is a former special education teacher who offers Bryce her unwavering support. 

Young’s father once explained how important mental health was in their family. “It’s just something that we’ve always paid a lot of attention to,” Craig told CBS Sports. “And we always wanted to provide an environment for Bryce where he felt safe and he felt loved and he felt encouraged irrespective of his outcomes.” 

He added: “We provided a safe place for him to express his feelings or sometimes not to express his feelings… that whatever he’s feeling was okay and that we were there to help him problem solve and that through that problem-solving journey he was always loved and we were there for him.”

The style of upbringing seems to be paying off. Young is now on a mission to make mental health a more suitable topic to talk about in NFL culture. Even though most fans don’t want to mention it, the Carolina QB wants to let every kid know that it’s okay to ask for help.

Look, the studies and statistics don’t lie. Between 5% – 35% of elite athletes have some form of mental health disorder. And that’s just the elite ones. Almost everyone goes through the mental obstacle of coming to terms with the idea that they aren’t as good as the elite athletes. Which is an unquantifiable number. 

Young’s generation is simply not as afraid to let people know when they aren’t doing okay mentally. And while the stigma has always dissuaded such athletes from speaking out about it, it’s great that Bryce is trying to change that notion. Behind the education from his parents, his status, and his great smile, he could indeed make a difference.