There are approximately 19 million U.S. veterans as of this year, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and of this population, there are far too many servicemen and women who struggle with depression, PTSD, and a loss of identity, or purpose. Although the playing field pales in comparison to the battlefield, professional athletes also suffer from mental health issues following retirement, as the transition out of team-oriented work environments can be challenging.
Because these two teams share common values and experiences, Nate Boyer, a former U.S. Army Green Beret and NFL player, and NFL insider Jay Glazer founded Merging Vets & Players (MVP), a nonprofit organization that helps combat veterans and former pro athletes transition into new lives through physical fitness and peer-to-peer support.
There are six MVP chapters, located in cities across the country, and Boyer joined After Hours with Amy Lawrence on Thursday to discuss the program's goals and success.
"What we do, basically, on a week-to-week basis, is we meet together in the gym, and usually it's an MMA-type gym, somewhere where everybody can do the workout together," Boyer said. "We do a little bit of MMA, maybe a little bit of high-intensity cross training... We just want to get a good sweat going, kind of get those endorphins moving, and it opens us up a little bit. So we train for about 30-40 minutes, and then we hang out on the wrestling mats, and it's an open-forum, peer-to-peer counseling coaching sessions. We call it 'The Huddle.' There's literally no secret sauce to this thing. We just are there for one another. We encourage vulnerability. We want people to talk about what they have going on in their lives.
"Sometimes people have been harboring stuff that's been bothering them for decades. Sometimes it's something that happened last week with your kid. And you just need a place to share it with like-minded people that understand maybe what's it like to see red when you shouldn't see red, to get overwhelmed emotionally, one way or another, that it seems so out of place, you don't know where it's coming from, and then other people in that room are like, 'I know exactly where that's coming and I can completely relate...' And that's just not for veterans and athletes -- that's human beings, generally...
"More than anything, we have that comfort zone. That comfort level with one another, that mutual respect. And people feel empowered to speak and to share struggles, but also good stuff, and be proud of our scars."
Information about Merging Vets & Players can be found here.
The entire conversation between Boyer and Lawrence can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow After Hours With Amy Lawrence on Twitter @ALawRadio and @AfterHoursCBS, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.