- Former Ohio State football player Harry Miller retired from football due to burnout and stress, he said.
- Miller said he engaged in self harm due to the stress of balancing football and academics.
- He cried during a television interview about the experience and his decision on the Today Show.
Former Ohio State football player Harry Miller cried during a television interview on the Today Show on Monday after opening up about the mental health struggles he dealt with during his time as a college athlete.
The 21-year-old said the pressure of playing at one of the nation's top football programs combined with staying on top of his academic assignments caused him to become stressed and burnt out.
"You play a game, it's a hard game, perhaps you made a lot of mistakes, and people send you a message saying, 'Transfer, you suck,'" Miller said. "Some people get death threats that I know on the team, and I'm trying to text my mom, that's the first thing I see, and then you can't worry about it too much because you've got an exam the next day."
Miller played offensive guard for Ohio State from 2019 to 2021 before announcing his retirement from football on March 10 in a tweet. In the post, he said that his mental health struggles were so severe that he told his coach that he planned on taking his own life. He said he reported to his team's training camp this year with cut marks on his wrists and neck, saying that he had tough skin but it wasn't tougher than a box cutter.
"I had no intention of this happening the way it did, and people call me brave," he said on the Today Show. "But to me, this felt like not dying, and I felt like being honest. And maybe bravery is just being honest when it would easier not to, and if that's bravery, then so be it. But I've just been really grateful to one, receive the help I have, and then two, to learn some things that I can share with others."
Miller said that he has been dealing with mental health struggles since he was a child, and first told his mother that he wanted to take his life when he was eight years old, but said the pressure of playing football at Ohio State made things even more difficult over the past three years. But he added that quitting football has been a relief for him and has been a positive step towards improving his mental health.
Miller said he hopes that other people dealing with mental health struggles can find hope and guidance from his message, especially other college athletes. His message came just nine days after Stanford women's soccer star Katie Meyer died by suicide, which put a recent spotlight on the issue of mental health struggles among college athletes at high-profile athletic programs.