Jordan Devey’s tragic death is a sobering reminder that fame and fortune don’t insulate individuals from deep personal struggles. His family’s announcement of his suicide is a stark wake-up call that goes beyond the sports narrative pushed by ESPN and NFL networks. You can almost hear the spinning wheels of mainstream media warming up, ready to turn this into a story about athlete mental health, but where were they when he was alive? Why the sudden concern now?

ESPN and NFL Media would rather wrap this in a neat bow of “awareness” rather than face the uncomfortable reality that athletes often battle demons in silence. The NFL has its accountability issues, yet here we are again, treating mental health as a trendy topic instead of a serious, ongoing dialogue that needs to happen every day, not just on the back of a tragedy. The coverage—if you can call it that—on CNN will likely gloss over the individual pain and suffering Devey endured, leaning on statistics and broad narratives to dodge deeper scrutiny of systemic issues in sports culture.

Let’s be real: the media is complicit in creating a pressure cooker environment for athletes. It’s time to hold not just the NFL accountable but also those who cherry-pick stories to fit an agenda. Jordan Devey deserved better than to become just another faceless figure in a tragic narrative. Mental health deserves more than a hashtag—it deserves genuine commitment and conversation.