Chase Claypool discusses personal experience with mental health following death of Dwayne Haskins
Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Chase Claypool wanted to send a message on mental health, but he wasn’t sure if this was the right way to do it. Claypool was hurting following the death of teammate Dwayne Haskins in April and took a video of himself crying in his car and expressing his emotions.
The receiver wanted to post it on social media, but worried about the potential backlash of being so vulnerable online in front of hundreds of thousands of fans. However, the mental health battle is a personal one to him. It is one that his sister fought and lost, so he knew the importance of speaking out.
That’s why he ultimately decided to post the video in hope of helping others who might be struggling.
“I posted some stuff on social media the day I found out,” Claypool explained on the I AM ATHLETE podcast. “That’s because my sister went through her mental health problems and she’s not with us no more. So I took a video of me crying after I heard about Dwayne and I went back and forth with myself on whether I should post it because I know everything about the perception. But with my sister passing, I kind of took it upon myself to be a voice for mental health. So I thought to myself, ‘What kind of man would I be if I sit up on a stage and tell people to express their feelings and tell people what they’re going through when I can’t even do it myself?'”
Claypool said he was still aware of what the response could be, but was OK with that if it meant he could help just one person. He simply wanted to open a conversation and show people that sometimes expressing feelings is necessary for healing.
“I was going back and forth with that video for a long time, but I wanted to show people that it’s OK not to be OK,” he said. “It’s OK to be vulnerable. I know that video is gonna come up and people are gonna clown me, but if I could’ve helped on person through tragedy or maybe saved one life and have one person reach out to me and I can have a conversation with them, then I’m cool with getting made fun of. Just trying to take tragedy and make it into something.”
Haskins’ death was hard on everyone in the Steelers locker room, but thanks to Chase Claypool the conversation about mental health is now out in the open. Pittsburgh will keep the quarterback in their hearts as they prepare to open the 2022 season on Sept. 11 against Cincinnati.