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RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - Printable Version

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RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - PalmTree - 02-16-2023

Stanley passed away at just 40 yo. He had a tough go of it as a kid, eventually being raised by his grandad before coming to Stanford. He made it to the NFL where he played for a few years before his career was cut short by an Achilles tear. Sadly, his life then took a downward spiral due to mental health and drug-related issues.

I met and talked to his grandad several times back in the railbird days. Stanley would come over and say hi and chat after practices were over - I'll always remember Stanley as a sweet, articulate and humble kid, just happy to be there and loving school. IIRC, he graduated with a degree in Urban Studies. I sure wish his life could've turned out more positively, and hope he's finally found peace - very sad.

Stanley Wilson Jr. Passes


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - old spanish trail - 02-16-2023

Very sad.


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - fullmetal - 02-16-2023

Terrible news to hear.  I vaguely remember reading a post here about the home break-ins.  Did he not have a support structure or family/social safety net?  He may have needed intensive mental health intervention that wasn't available :(


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - jonnyss - 02-16-2023

(02-16-2023, 12:31 PM)fullmetal Wrote:  Terrible news to hear.  I vaguely remember reading a post here about the home break-ins.  Did he not have a support structure or family/social safety net?  He may have needed intensive mental health intervention that wasn't available :(

as i just posted on tos, many, if not most, of these declines have turned out to involve cte.


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - BostonCard - 02-16-2023

Hard to speculate.  while it might be true in individual cases, it is worth noting that former football players is not higher than among the overall population (according to this study, it is actually lower: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5048489/)

The truth of the matter is that depression can affect anyone, and you don't need to look for specific reasons.

And here is an obligatory disclaimer when talking about this stuff that help is available.  https://988lifeline.org or call or text 988.

BC


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - jonnyss - 02-17-2023

(02-16-2023, 05:17 PM)BostonCard Wrote:  Hard to speculate.  while it might be true in individual cases, it is worth noting that former football players is not higher than among the overall population (according to this study, it is actually lower: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5048489/)

The truth of the matter is that depression can affect anyone, and you don't need to look for specific reasons.

And here is an obligatory disclaimer when talking about this stuff that help is available.  https://988lifeline.org or call or text 988.

BC

you wrote that "former football players is not higher." not quite sure what you are implying. if you are saying that cte does not predispose to serious mental health problems, the study does not assert that. thank you for linking the study. it says that suicide is not higher among former football players. it does not study cte or state that cte is not higher among football players. i would agree about looking for causes that disparage the individual. but while there are multiple situations that predispose to serious mental health problems, some of them can be ameliorated to decrease the risk. katie meyer's parents certainly think so. and having cte affects treatment. antidepressants and mood stabilizers often don't work as well in those with brain injury.


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - BostonCard - 02-17-2023

Yeah, sorry, that was not a well-written post.  I was just going to say that suicide among former football players is not higher than among the overall population.  In light of that, one does not need to speculate football-related causes for what happened.  Certainly, if we knew that Wilson suffered from CTE, speculating about that connection is reasonable.  But right now, all we know is that Wilson played football and that he committed suicide, but since football players aren't more likely to commit suicide the connection doesn't seem completely obvious.

BC


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - msqueri - 02-17-2023

Did I miss something that this was suicide? Reports I saw said he collapsed during intake to the mental health facility. I had assumed an overdose or any number of other health-related cause following his many years of drug use and mental illness.


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - BostonCard - 02-17-2023

(02-17-2023, 11:28 AM)msqueri Wrote:  Did I miss something that this was suicide? Reports I saw said he collapsed during intake to the mental health facility. I had assumed an overdose or any number of other health-related cause following his many years of drug use and mental illness.

My mistake, I thought I read somewhere that it was an intentional overdose, but I can't find any reference to that, so I might have misread it.

BC


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - Spiny_Norman - 02-17-2023

Stanley Wilson's father, Stanley Wilson Sr., was also a troubled soul. An incredibly talented RB at Oklahoma who went on to play for the Bengals in the NFL. But his college and pro careers both were interrupted by substance abuse and crime. He ended up with a 22 year jail sentence when Stanley Jr. would have been about 16 years old. That's a really tough environment in which to grow up.



Quote:Unfortunately, things got worse for Wilson after he was out of the NFL. His drug habit got the best of him, and he spent much of the ’90s grappling with drug abuse despite having kids at home to feed. His low point came in 1999, when Wilson, high on drugs, stole $130,000 from a Beverly Hills home and got caught. He received a 22-year jail sentence.


https://www.sportscasting.com/where-is-scorned-bengals-fullback-stanley-wilson-now/


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - Nan3cy - 02-17-2023

Seems to me Jr. must have been an extraordinary kid just to get to Stanford out of that background. How sad.


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - cardcrimson - 02-17-2023

Mental health is a brobdingnagian issue, with older folks, with ex-athletes, with kids, and others. Just in the last week or so, a client's private equity owner jumped to his death. We have a brobdingnagian problem that we're ignoring. So many still attach a stigma to mental health issues and blame those struggling. "It's on them" is disappointingly, not all that uncommon to hear.

Here's the lastest on teen girls, published just this week:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/p0213-yrbs.html

We as a society are failing our daughters.

We as a society are failing our citizens. 

We boast of the 40 year decision and the lifetime of benefits that a Stanford education and the Stanford community will bring our athletes. We failed Stanley. We failed Katie. How many others have we failed, as well? How many others will we continue to fail?

How do we fix it?


RE: RIP Stanley Wilson Jr. - lex24 - 02-19-2023

(02-17-2023, 05:49 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:  Mental health is a of immense proportions issue, with older folks, with ex-athletes, with kids, and others. Just in the last week or so, a client's private equity owner jumped to his death. We have a of immense proportions problem that we're ignoring. So many still attach a stigma to mental health issues and blame those struggling. "It's on them" is disappointingly,  not all that uncommon to hear.

Here's the lastest on teen girls, published just this week:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/p0213-yrbs.html

We as a society are failing our daughters.

We as a society are failing our citizens. 

We boast of the 40 year decision and the lifetime of benefits that a Stanford education and the Stanford community will bring our athletes. We failed Stanley. We failed Katie. How many others have we failed, as well? How many others will we continue to fail?

How do we fix it?

Not just girls.  Fact is, teenage boys commit suicide at a higher rate than girls.

Fixing it starts with will.  Remove stigma.  Increase resources.  Talk openly.  Teenagers are always at a higher risk because they have yet to fully develop the tools to deal with things. And of course, there is the role of social media.  Dealing with that is a major issue.