Oct 19, 2014; Carson, CA, USA; Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan (10) during pre-game warmups before the Los Angeles Galaxy match against the Seattle Sounders FC at StubHub Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
I’m going to start out with a little personal take. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is a mental condition that causes me to show whether I am in a positive mood or not. There is no middle ground, there is no common ground. I experience highs, I suffer through the lows. Rarely do I find myself fixated at the crossroads.
Sports, and soccer in particular, parallel the mental picture that characterize the players, the coaches, the supporters, and all the role players that play their part in a sporting event. For Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan, being open about his mental condition and how he hopes people learn lessons in regards to his highs and lows is a progressive move and an effort long overdue.
MLSSoccer.com’s Nick Firchau wrote a report regarding Donovan’s crusade to defeat the stigma of mental health on athletes.
“We have a sort of stigma that being in a difficult mental place is not acceptable,” Donovan said in March of last year. “We should ‘pull ourselves up by the bootstraps’ and ‘fight through it,’ and all this, and it’s a little peculiar to me, that whole idea, that if someone’s physically hurt, we’re OK with letting them take the time they need to come back, but if someone’s in a difficult time mentally, we’re not OK with letting them take the time they need to come back. Hopefully, there’s at least a few people out in the world that can relate to this and can somewhat be inspired.”
“Things that mean something to Landon, he’s willing to talk about,” says Galaxy associate head coach and former USMNT assistant Dave Sarachan. “We all do this when we get older – we gain perspective. Clearly Landon has that.”
“We don’t live in a world where it’s okay to admit that we’re not perfect,” Donovan told Firchau. “Everybody wants to take a picture where we’re smiling and we’re so happy. Sadness is not okay in our world.
“In other cultures, sadness is accepted as a part of life. There’s beauty in sadness. People are compassionate. In America we say, ‘Don’t be sad, cheer up!’ It’s ‘Don’t cry kid, here’s a toy!’ We actually learn it at a very young age, and I see that with parents all the time.
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“You have a parent telling a kid, ‘Don’t cry!’ Well, crying is how kids express themselves. Sadness is a way kids express themselves. And we try to get rid of it as quickly as we can.”
“He showed weakness at times, and as athletes you’re taught not to think, just act,” says former MLS player and current ESPN analyst Taylor Twellman, who commentates with Adrian Healey on a number of ESPN MLS broadcasts. “Landon Donovan is not the only athlete to wake up in the morning and feel tired of going to training. But he’s the only athlete who’s been open about it, and in many people’s minds, he was weak.“
A similar case can be said of fellow Galaxy teammate Robbie Rogers, who went through his own personal demons before finding his niche, coming out, and coming back stronger than before.
“Last year was crazy for me,” says Rogers. “I quickly realized it was not something you can get over by talking with someone over a two-week period, a number of months or even years.”
I previously mentioned in this editorial that this is a progressive move by Donovan to perpetuate a crusade against the stigma of mental health. Donovan feels that it’s not exactly rocket science.
“It’s almost laughable that this has to be coined as ‘progressive,’ but it’s true,” Donovan said. “Big-picture-wise, I’m constantly shocked at how little attention is paid to the emotional and mental side of sports.
“Forget about how it affects people in their personal lives for a second. It could massively help your team as a coach, or a GM or an owner. If you really invested in this and helped people, you’re going to get so much more out of your players.
“If you could convince the teams that this is worthwhile – which I certainly could do – then they would do it. If it added up to one more point and meant making the playoffs instead of missing the playoffs, they would do it. And if I can help one more person to not go through some of the hard times I’ve gone through and I’ve seen others go through, it’s totally worth it.”
I can conclude in this editorial that there is a little Landon Donovan in all of us. The highs and the lows. The wins and the losses. Victories and defeats. The struggle to live is what makes us stronger. Landon Donovan, the face of American Soccer, is an example of overcoming the struggles and transforming it into a tool to teach new generations of future leaders, on and off the field.
So, readers on the MLS Multiplex, I encourage you to embrace this part of you that wills you to go on. Embracing the struggle to live and succeed will make you stronger and make you complete and assertive in where your calling may be.
After all, it’s fair to say that there is indeed a little Landon Donovan in all of us.