JJ Weaver Creates 'Perfect Fit' Program to help Grieving Athletes

JJ Weaver has been at the highest of highs and lowest of lows at the University of Kentucky. After receiving help through life’s most difficult challenges, he’s now helping others.

In the summer of 2020 Weaver’s father, Terrance Weaver, was murdered during a home invasion. He played through it, but was faced with another obstacle that fall when he suffered a torn ACL at Florida. Without football, he could no longer just play through his pain.

“That was the worst time of my life. I was just so isolated.” Weaver told CBS Sports, “I was showing it in the locker room. I was showing it in the treatment room. Everybody started noticing my behavior, I wasn’t talking to nobody.”

He spoke with his head coach. In a long conversation Mark Stoops shared his experience of losing his father while he was playing football in college. Kentucky’s head coach directed him to professional therapy, but it was not an easy solution.

He struggled to find the right counselor. Weaver was speaking with professionals on Zoom because there weren’t grief counselors available at the University of Kentucky. Once he found the right fit, he made sure others no longer had to struggle in their grief alone by creating the “Perfect Fit.” In partnership with the Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families, he created a program for student-athletes at the University of Kentucky.

“I wanted to start something different,” said Weaver. “First with the football team to see that we’re men, but we still have feelings. At the end of the day we still grieve, we still go through things. It’s okay to talk to somebody about what you’re going through.”

The Perfect Fit Peer Support Group is open to his Kentucky teammates. They meet each Monday during an 8-week program to help individuals cope with their mental and emotional problems. CBS Sports sat in during one of those meetings.

Inside College Football on CBS Sports Network spent almost 15 minutes of their program profiling the impact Weaver is making at the University of Kentucky football program. Not only is he helping his current and future teammates, he’s taking action to remove the stigma that it’s okay to not be okay.

“I am beyond proud of him,” said his mother, Stacey Sherrell. “Just to know his struggles, I can’t say how much joy that I have. To know that my son, little J.J., is actually going to leave something behind and that’s his legacy.”

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