Former Wisconsin Badgers running back Montee Ball will share his lifelong journey with mental health and substance use recovery during a “fireside chat” on Wednesday evening from 6-8:30 p.m. at Cooper’s Tavern in downtown Madison.
The fundraising event is hosted by Journey Mental Health and will be moderated by Kristin Brey of As Goes Wisconsin.
Journey Mental Health serves more than 10,000 people per year with programming that serves both youths and adults.
“We are excited to welcome Montee and Kristin,” said Jon Lica, development director at Journey Mental Health Center. “It’s going to be a fireside chat. Kristin will be interviewing Montee, who will be going through his personal story. She will share some of her personal story and you basically will get to experience a conversation.”
Lica said more than 90 percent of the clients Journey Mental Health serves are using Medicaid or Medicare or have no insurance at all, bolstering the need for Journey to have fundraising events such as this one.
Journey Mental Health includes several connected support systems for people experiencing emotional challenges or crises. Journey has staff providing phone assistance for people who call the Dane County crisis hotline as well as workers embedded with the CARES team. According to Lica, Journey also helps provide services for youths in more than 20 area schools.
“We have community-based programs that provide a lot of case management for folks living with persistent mental illness,” Lica said. “We are also in 20 schools providing mental health services and screening young people for trauma and suicide risks.”
Journey focuses on not just the individuals seeking services with them, but also on how those individuals’ issues ripple out in the community.
“I think the one thing that could really use more awareness and understanding is how mental health affects individual and community well-being,” Lica said. “When one person says they’re struggling with mental health, people don’t always understand what that means for their everyday lives. They’re raising children, showing up for their community, their work.”
This month, Journey is launching a campaign for mental health awareness to reduce stigma around mental health as well as raise funds.
“We’re excited to have this event series and this one, in particular, is special because we have Montee Ball, a former Badger, here to talk about his story,” Lica said.
Ball has been a spokesperson and champion of mental health awareness since retiring from the NFL. He has been transparent about the emotional challenges he faced both as an adolescent and into adulthood, including during his professional playing career.
Living the dream
Montee Ball has the second-most rushing touchdowns in NCAA history during his Badger career with 77, and also has the second-most rushing touchdowns in a single season with 33 in 2011 when he was a First-Team All-American and rushed for 1,923 yards. He joins two other Badgers on the list of the 25 all-time leaders in rushing yards in NCAA history, as well.
The University of Wisconsin is widely regarded as Running Back University and one of Ball’s lifelong dreams was to play for the Denver Broncos, perhaps the professional version of Wisconsin’s style of football. The Broncos have utilized elite running backs historically, like Terrell Davis and Clinton Portis.
The Broncos selected Ball in the second round of the 2012 NFL draft and Ball has said publicly he felt like it was a dream come true.
That feeling was greatly bolstered by the fact that he joined one of the most prolific offenses in league history.
During Ball’s rookie season, the Broncos set the record for points in an NFL season and were led by legendary quarterback Peyton Manning, who threw 55 touchdown passes that season.
The team made it all the way to the Super Bowl, with Ball appearing in each game.
But behind the scenes, Ball was struggling. He has said that depression, anxiety and the culture shock of achieving stardom, in addition to living a childhood dream, helped contribute to his struggling with emotional wellness.
Ball’s struggles included a heavy addiction to alcohol, which he has said harmed his pro career. He was released by the Broncos after sustaining an injury early in his career and Broncos president John Elway flatly told him that he partied too much.
Ball perhaps hit rock bottom when he was jailed in Dane County for domestic violence, literally as Manning and his former Broncos teammates returned to the Super Bowl for a second time.
Since then, Ball has turned things around. He has written a memoir, made public appearances talking about his issues, and is a clinical outreach ambassador for Sandstone Care in Denver. He is a certified recovery coach trainer.
“He has shared his story with me personally and I felt quite moved by it,” Lica said. “As I stepped into this role with Journey, I thought it would be great to have him come back to Madison and create some ripple effects.”
Anyone interested in attending the fireside chat with Montee Ball and Kristin Brey can purchase tickets here.
