{"id":922981,"date":"2026-10-10T11:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T11:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922981\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T11:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T11:24:38","slug":"andrew-whitworth-praises-lane-johnsons-courage-for-speaking-out-about-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/922981\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Whitworth praises Lane Johnson’s courage for speaking out about mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a Stephen A. Smith-fueled media cycle about Lane Johnson\u2019s surprise decision to retire from football due to mental health reasons ran its course \u2014 from insensitive hot take to quasi-apology to full-throated apology all within 24 hours \u2014 others in NFL media are expressing their support for the former All-Pro right tackle.<\/p>\n

Chief among them is Prime Video studio analyst Andrew Whitworth, a former All-Pro tackle himself, who took a moment to praise Johnson\u2019s courage during the\u00a0Thursday Night Football pregame show.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t just speak up for himself; he spoke up for a lot of people who live in silence with that. So, to Lane Johnson, thank you for being you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Whitworth on Lane Johnson retiring to focus on his mental health. https:\/\/t.co\/6NztnLSIQJ<\/p>\n

\u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a guy who is probably the greatest right tackle of his generation, maybe ever,\u201d Whitworth began. \u201cSix-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro, he won two Super Bowls with the Philadelphia Eagles. Unbelievable player. But you should see his impact. 122 wins and 63 losses when he was in the lineup, they were 18-30 when he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a big impact on the field, but I want to talk about off the field. You\u2019re talking about a guy that through his vulnerability, to talk about his own mental health struggles, he didn\u2019t just speak up for himself, he spoke up for a lot of people who live in silence with that. So to Lane Johnson, thank you for being you. Love you brother, you have earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitworth conveyed what Smith failed to<\/a>: compassion. Sometimes, players have an aha moment that it\u2019s time to hang it up. And in a sport as violent as football, there\u2019s no sense in playing a single down more than you\u2019re willing to. Johnson did not owe anyone an explanation, but he gave one anyway.<\/p>\n

Whitworth is far from the only person in NFL media to stand by Johnson\u2019s decision, but his words certainly cut through on Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a Stephen A. Smith-fueled media cycle about Lane Johnson\u2019s surprise decision to retire from football due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[30314,64,63,137,18596,514,515,93119],"class_list":["post-922981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-andrew-whitworth","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-lane-johnson","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-thursday-night-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}