'Bigger Than Football': Ex-Buckeye Harry Miller Details Fight For Mental Health

Since stepping away from the football field Harry Miller is trying to tackle the stigma against mental health.

Author:
Harrison Reno
Apr 22, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

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While some of his former teammates are under a week away from the NFL Draft, one of the best nights of their football career, and others have just finished with spring practice at Ohio State, ex-Buckeye Harry Miller is continuing his journey in helping fight the longstanding stigma against mental health.

Miller was recently a part of Fox Sports NFL insider and analyst Jay Glazer's "UNBREAKABLE: A Mental Health Podcast" to talk about his battle for mental health. In the interview, Miller details what was going through his mind as he considered suicide.

"There was a student-athlete committing suicide every other week. It felt so absurd, and it felt like surely somebody has to say something. And I think everybody is just afraid of being a 'somebody,' Miller said. "But it's so easy to be a somebody. Anybody can be just somebody. Fortunately, I was a person who could be just somebody," Miller continued.

"I viewed it as almost a martyrdom when I was depressed. And I was thinking, you know, the only way I can get visibility to this issue is to sacrifice myself."

But something stopped Miller from taking his own life in an attempt to get people's attention about the seriousness of mental health and suicide in student-athletes.

"You know, I like to write, and I love to edit, and I can't stop editing. It's like I couldn't even conceive of writing a suicide note because I wouldn't be able to come up with the final draft," Miller said. "I would be thinking, you know, I can't use this word; I have to put a paragraph here."

Luckily that love to edit stopped Miller from ultimately "sacrificing" himself. Now Miller is focusing on helping others while at the same time holding the "editing power" over his own life.