{"id":531402,"date":"2026-03-18T19:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531402\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T19:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:41:08","slug":"a-j-green-calls-for-better-nfl-mental-health-care-after-rondale-moores-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/531402\/","title":{"rendered":"A.J. Green calls for better NFL mental health care after Rondale Moore’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last two seasons of A.J. Green\u2019s 12-year NFL career were spent in Arizona, playing with Rondale Moore, who was in the first two seasons of his NFL career. Green became like family to Moore.<\/p>\n

Last month, Green lost a member of his family when Moore took his own life. People who knew Moore say he became increasingly depressed at his inability to play after suffering season-ending injuries during the preseason each of the last two years. Green says it\u2019s time for the NFL to do more to look after players\u2019 mental health while they\u2019re dealing with setbacks to their physical health.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me there\u2019s a lot that could still be improved in the NFL, as far as how the league is helping its players with their mental health,\u201d Green wrote at ThePlayersTribune.com. \u201cAnd one way I would start is by making it mandatory, if you have a major injury, that you see an independent mental health counselor as part of your rehab<\/a>. And by also making it mandatory, if you have a second major injury, that you see an independent mental health counselor for an extended period of time, even after your rehab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green also says NFL teams need to embrace mental health care as something normal and positive for players to seek, and not look down on players who struggle with their mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of that means anything if the people who are making the football decisions, in private, are viewing mental health issues how I feel like a lot of times they still get viewed: as a red flag. That\u2019s the truth. No one in any front office will ever say it out loud. No scout is ever gonna put it in a scouting report. But that\u2019s how it\u2019s viewed in this league by a lot of people,\u201d Green wrote. \u201cAnd as long as that\u2019s the case? Stories like Rondale\u2019s will probably keep happening. Because it means we\u2019re telling players that having a mental health issue is gonna fuck with their money. And if we\u2019re telling players that, then we\u2019re creating an incentive for them to lie about their mental health. And if players lie about their mental health, then they\u2019re going to feel shame about their mental health. And they\u2019re not going to get the help they need \u2014 and whatever issues they\u2019re facing are not going to get better, and are probably going to get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green\u2019s reflections on Moore\u2019s life and death are powerful. The NFL and its teams should listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last two seasons of A.J. Green\u2019s 12-year NFL career were spent in Arizona, playing with Rondale Moore,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-531402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}