England Rugby Player Stars in Documentary Exploring Mental Health
May 14, 2021
Harlequins and England international rugby player, Joe Marler, opened up about his personal battles with mental health in a new Sky Sports documentary, Big Boys Don’t Cry. Airing this week for the UK's Mental Health Awareness Week, Marler discusses his journey working on his struggles with depression and about learning new methods of managing mental wellbeing.
The documentary follows the 30-year-old professional rugby union player as he travels around the country in the effort to destigmatise conversations surrounding mental health challenges. As part of the project he showcases the different ways that people are managing their own wellbeing - from taking cold water plunges to singing in a choir.
Marler explained his thoughts behind making the hour-long documentary stating, “I wanted to meet people who, like me, had gone down their own mental health ‘rabbit holes’. I wanted to hear about how they found their own ways of getting out of them and gain a better understanding of how mental health issues affect us all.”
In a 2020 autobiography and in podcasts and media interviews, Marler documented receiving a diagnosis of a form of depression after a troubling history of smashing his house up, pulling out of England tours and squads and behaving antagonistically on the 2017 Lions tour. For years, he unsuccessfully attempted to separate himself as a player from his role as a husband and father to compartmentalise his personal life. In 2019, he reached a breaking point. Big Boys Don't Cry details his path to solace.
“I hope that talking about my own mental health will get others talking about theirs and help to normalise it, especially in an alpha male-dominated sport like rugby. We are required to dominate and intimidate opposing players when we cross the white line on the pitch, we must show no weakness or vulnerability in order to win. But it doesn’t have to be like that off the pitch. I want to help spread the message that many others have done already that it’s okay not to be okay. And help people find the right tools to cope,” said Marler.
Steve Smith, Executive Director of Content at Sky Sports said, “[W]e are always striving to tell interesting and powerful stories that our audience finds intriguing and can relate to. Joe Marler is one of the most recognizable rugby stars in the game and it is fantastic that we are able to tell such a personal story of his to our viewers.”
Marler is an ambassador for Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a leading movement against suicide in the UK. He has previously spoken about his battle with depression and reiterated in a video message coinciding with International Men’s Day last year, that many men suffer from mental health challenges and it's not a sign of weakness to seek advice and help.
Source: Sky Sports and GQ