By Jared Ocana

It's the biggest and most watched sporting event during the year. Two professional football teams of the National Football League, the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had worked all year just to reach this pinnacle game. With more than 70,000 fans in attendance at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, and many millions more watching on TV. In a game of such magnitude and excitement, as an athlete, it was an opportunity of a lifetime and something no one would want to miss.

Yet, as the first kickoff in Super Bowl XXXVII was returned, All-Pro center Barret Robbins of the Oakland Raiders, the AFC Conference Champions, was in a hospital after being put on the inactive list for the game due to his mysterious 24-hour disapperance two days earlier. How is this possible? The biggest game of his entire career, an All-Pro caliber player, and he knowingly breaks team rules and vanishes without telling anyone of his whereabouts.

To many people, this behavior seems extremely unacceptable, but for someone who suffers from bipolar depression like Robbins, it was just a bad emotional episode brought on by the stress of the game itself.

Elite athletes having depression? It doesn't seem right, these athletes are our latter-day gladiators, and they train to be in top physical shape and to handle high-pressured situations in front of thousands of spectators. How is it possible that they suffer from depression?

Believe it or not, it's that type of thinking which creates the stigma that comes from athletes having depression.

Athletes are athletes because they are physically gifted. "They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things," Dr. Richard Gordin, a USU professor and sports psychologist, said. With all they do when they perform, afterwards they are still normal people with normal problems, feelings, emotions, concerns and stress.

It's a societal misunderstanding; they place these athletes on a pedestal. Society, expects them to be so physically fit, they assume they are mentally as well, Gordin said.

"We're expected to do so much," a female athlete on the Utah State track and field team said, "we're always to be happy and accomplish our goals, but that's a lot of pressure."

According to the National Mental Health Association, over 19 million Americans are affected by depression. It's an illness that causes people to lose pleasure in their daily life; it can complicate medical conditions and may even lead to suicide. Depression affects a person's body, mood, and thoughts; as well as the way they eat and sleep, the way the feel about themselves, and the way they think about things.

It is an illness that shouldn't be seen as weakness of character or treated like a cold that will eventually go away by itself, according to information provided by the National Institute of Mental Health. People who suffer from depression cannot merely "pull themselves together" and get better. Without appropriate treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years.

In Robbins' case it was more publicized, but many athletes suffer from some form of depression and many outsiders and at times the athletes themselves, are oblivious to their condition; be it they are professional, collegiate or even high school athletes.

Like non-athletes, most athletes may go throughout their careers and even sometimes their lives without ever being diagnosed. Some reasoning is today's athletic culture is one that is filled with testosterone and any mental illness is considered a weakness.

"Blow out your knee, get into trouble with the law, fail a drug test, and the team will help you back, but suffer a mental or emotional injury, and it's a big mark against you," Russ Johnson, a former infielder for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. It is possible athletes are actually more prone to suffer from depression, according to a September issue of Sports Illustrated, because of the environment many athletes are engaged in. Next to heredity, stress is the most common cause for an athlete to suffer from depression. Much of this comes from the surroundings most athletes have to perform in, stadiums filled with spectators watching every move and action examining and ridiculing every mistake or achievement.

"They are constantly under the microscope," Gordin said.

Since depression is so misunderstood, many athletes and coaches don't even acknowledge the symptoms, let alone know how to accept the illness. Coaches and the athletes themselves sometimes see it as just a peformance slump that the athlete will eventually grow out of it. With so many people that take care of the athletes, like physicians, athletic trainers, coaches and advisors, it's hard to believe athletes go unnoticed with this illness.

Here at Utah State, the entire athletic department including team coaches are trying to take a proactive approach in seeking help if an athlete needs it, Brian Evans, athletic director of student services, said. When a coach or trainer becomes aware of the symptoms, they do whatever it takes for the athlete to get help.

"Most of what we do is referral, with many contacts and liaisons, our avenue is to gather as much information as possible to make a referral directly to the counseling center," Evans said.

If the athlete's symptoms are recognized, often the case is the athlete at first is unwilling to accept their illness.

"I knew I wasn't depressed, I just thought I had problems sleeping, and that was actually the cause of all my problems," a female track and field athlete said, "I mean, you don't want to know that you're depressed, and you definitely don't want other people to know. It's embarrassing."

With most athletes, the rule of third is applied. As a third of them accept it, a third reject the idea, and the other third tend to be somewhere in the middle, Gordin said.

The key to mental health for athletes is acceptance, both of their humanity and the help available to them. It is important for athletes as well as society in general to realize they are human just like everyone else and they go through the same trials and tribulations.

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