'The Wheels Came Off': Calvin Ridley Writes on Mental Health, Gambling and the Falcons

Former Atlanta Falcons star receiver Calvin Ridley opened up on the trauma and mental health issues that led him to gambling on the NFL.

Calvin Ridley has shared what contributed to him betting on his Atlanta Falcons back in 2021 in a letter to The Players Tribune.

“When I made those bets, there was a hell of a lot more going on with me,” Ridley writes.

In 2021, Ridley was diagnosed with a broken foot two months before Week 1. Ridley writes that he rushed himself back from injury in time, but the painkillers he took to play couldn't mask the mental strain he was going through, ultimately performing as a shell of himself.

After the game, Ridley drove home with his wife and daughter to find their house surrounded by police cars; their house had been robbed.

Already dealing with mental fatigue from his injury, seeing the footage of gunmen breaking into his home triggered memories from his childhood, including he and his brother having been removed from their parents' home.

“I can still remember when we first got put in foster care, just lying in bed at night, scared as hell, not knowing what the future was going to bring. All I knew was that tomorrow … rain or shine … I could play some football,” Ridley said.

Fast-forward to his NFL career, when the star receiver downloaded a betting app and placed a small wager on a parlay that included the Falcons as a way, he writes, to "root for his boys.''

He would go on to detail the aftermath of that night and how the day the NFL investigators called him in was "probably the worst of his life."

Ridley, already battling with mental health issues at the time, would be suspended for the entire 2022 season for violating the NFL’s gambling policy. Now reinstated, he now views the suspension as having been a blessing in disguise.

“I had to hit rock bottom so I could get healthy. Thank God, with the help of my therapist, I was able to understand what was happening to me. I learned the names for the things that I was feeling — stress, depression, anxiety — and how to cope with those emotions,” Ridley writes.

Now a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Ridley felt compelled to express that he holds no ill will toward his former team.

He writes: “I don’t have a bad word to say about the Falcons or the city of Atlanta. That’s still my second home, and where my daughter was born. I tried to give y’all everything I had, until the wheels came off. It’s all love, forever.”

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