After being suspended indefinitely by the NFL since March 2022, Calvin Ridley has officially been reinstated on Monday. Following this announcement, Ridley pulls back the curtain and shares his experiences over the past three years. Through his piece, “A Letter to the Game” on The Players’ Tribune, Ridley opens up about his struggles with mental health and how his actions during this time of darkness were “thoughtless.”
I just f***ed up. Period. In a dark moment, I made a stupid mistake. I wasn’t trying to cheat the game. That’s the thing I want to make clear. At the time, I had been completely away from the team for about a month. I was still just so depressed and angry, and the days were so long. I was looking for anything to take my mind off of things and make the day go by faster.” – Calvin Ridley
Ridley shares that he was not trying to cheat the game, but while suffering from depression,
anxiety and stress, he was ‘just trying to get through the day’. Ridley opens up about his difficult upbringing growing up in foster care and how the game of football changed his life. Through his stories, he reminds fans that he is in fact, still human. Suffering these hardships then getting mentally and physically healthy has made him love football now more than ever.“And then to make it to the NFL … that was just life-changing for my people and for my neighborhood, for real. That’s why I want people to know my whole story, and know that I never meant to tarnish this game.” – Calvin Ridley