Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris is making sure players are taking care of their mental health. While speaking to reporters earlier this month, Morris was asked what the Falcons are doing to help players mentally as June is Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month.
“It’s tough duty to play in the National Football League,”Morris said. “When I got here, I talked about mental health of the guys, and we’re in the process right now of hiring people to put in place to be able to help our guys and make sure our mental health is strong, to make sure our character is strong, to make sure their personal life is strong.
“We got Fernando [Velasco] and Lovey [Tabron] that are part of our player development and engagement and directors of those positions and those coordinated roles that really go out of their way to help our guys get better, whether it be personal life skills, whether it be on the field skills, whether it be performance or whatever the case may be. We only want to make that thing grow into this structure that’s a little bit different than the National Football League. We want to be different than everybody else.”
Raheem Morris wants the Falcons to be a ‘world-class’ team
Morris continued: “When we got here, we talked about being world-class. I think when you talk about being world-class, you’re talking about world-class in every single right. That’s one of the rights that you have to have for these guys and how important that is, not only to myself, but our ownership and Arthur Blank and how he feels and all philanthropy that he’s a part of and everything that we’ve been a part of here. I think it’s so important for our guys to be well-rounded across the board when it comes to all those type of things and definitely got to be able to help those guys in all those areas.”
Morris and the Falcons just wrapped up their mandatory minicamp and now have some time off before they report to training camp next month. After three consecutive 7-10 seasons, the Falcons hired Morris during the offseason to replace Arthur Smith who is now the offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Falcons come with a lot of attention after signing quarterback Kirk Cousins to a $180 million contract and drafting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick in this year’s draft.
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