Football lends voice to message worth relaying: men should talk about their pain | Barney Ronay

Premier League’s link-up with the Together in Suicide campaign is dispersing simple, blunt and essential messaging

I f you watched US television adverts during the World Cup for any length of time one thing just kept leaping out. I’ve mentioned this before here , but it still seems both jarring and significant. Every third or fourth rotation in that endless daytime scroll, in between the Chicken Megadeth Hyper-Box Family Meal Deal, either side of David Beckham expertly consuming a light beer, is an advert for antidepressants.

The format for these is always the same kind of thing: contented, wholesome people throwing frisbees, or strolling through a small-town antiques fair, while a warm, honeyed, reassuring voiceover talks about how horrifying their lives are, with the suggestion that only a lengthy course of Smileothorium can solve this.

In another world there would be a call to study this phenomenon, to consider why a nation of such dazzling abundance and opportunity should also feel glazed, worthless and deprived of hope. But this is not that world. More than 50 million Americans have depression. This is demand and supply in action, a battle for market share in a £6bn industry. The US often worries about itself in its post-industrial age. What are we now? What can we still make? Where is the new frontier? Well, human misery is looking pretty hot right now.

The reason for talking about this here is that English football is doing a good thing this week. Between 4-14 September the Premier League is sponsoring the Together Against Suicide campaign. Harry Kane and Prince William have spoken warmly in support. The league is posting words of solidarity on its X account, which is probably not the best way to cheer yourself up if we’re being honest.

This is simple, useful messaging. It applies to people of any age, sex or background. But it applies in particular to men, and to middle-aged men, who are more likely to die by suicide than any other age group. Middle-aged men are more likely to experience depression and anxiety in those years. They can be hard to reach because this often happens out of sight or, most heartbreaking of all, without any indication there was even a problem.

It might be a little blunt in its styling. But what football is doing here is unequivocally good. Nothing else has the same level of reach and cut-through. If one person in the line of that message is touched by it, this seems like a happy outcome.

I think I have locus standi to talk about this. Everyone does. It’s universal. But I’m also unarguably a middle-aged man. I have two sons who are also now men. I have middle-aged male friends, many of whom are, with all due respect, a bit loopy. And like so many other people I’ve been down that road some of the way.

Life in Covid really did it for me. Exhaustion, isolation, the inescapable fact of having to carry on existing. Do you really have to, though? This kind of thing can creep into your mind like a shadow, just another idle thought. Until at some point you realise there’s a shadow in the corner of the room, a ghost in the chair, and it’s talking to you.

The fact is, it’s hard to be a man at any age.