Josh Jackson is a fifth year Doctoral Candidate at Indiana University - Bloomington in Counseling and Sport and Performance Psychology. Jackson has several years of experience as a Division I starting quarterback for both Virginia Tech University and the University of Maryland, and is now completing his final PhD internship year at Adrian College as the football team’s General Manager and Quarterbacks Coach. Jackson sat down with Sack the Stigma to talk about his personal experiences as a competitive collegiate athlete and how that influences the mental health work he does today.
Brooke Woodrum, Sack the Stigma: What was your experience like playing Division 1 college football?
Josh Jackson: I’d say I had an up and down experience with playing college football, but I think that’s just the nature of playing the quarterback position. I redshirted my first year [at Virginia Tech University] and was a backup for a handful of games, and then I started as a redshirt freshman. I played that season and we went 9-4, I had some good people around me, and was even able to break a couple records that year. The next year, we started off really well, but then I broke my leg and was out for the season. I was out for roughly 3-4 months because I broke my fibula and then tore a ligament in my ankle as well. It happened in the third or fourth game of the year, so then I was out the rest of the year and it wasn’t until December or January that I was fully back. I then ended up transferring to the University of Maryland where I started 9 games, experienced some more injuries, and then when COVID happened, during that time due to injuries and losing my love for the game, I decided to opt out, which then led me to now pursuing this PhD in Counseling and Sport & Performance Psychology.
STS: What influenced your decision to transfer from Virginia Tech to Maryland? What advice would you give to current college athletes in this new age of sports involving NIL and the transfer portal?
Jackson: The nuts and bolts of the decision was disagreeing with the coaching staff on what things would look like moving forward. I thought it would be best for me to try my chances at Maryland and get a fresh start from there. After getting injured and the season was done, I entered the portal and got some offers, but I decided to stay relatively close to Tech and transfer to Maryland, and I played the season there but then opted out right before camp of the 2020 season, so I then got my master’s from there in 2021.
The biggest thing, especially in thinking about what I would do if I were in that situation, would be some type of money management and financial advising. If you play your cards right with the nature of the money these kids can make in college, you can get a couple of degrees and whether you play in the NFL or you don’t, you can still be set up just fine. It’s beautiful how athletes can now benefit from NIL, but it’s about what you’re going to do with it. If you look at the NFL, there is a significant percentage of guys who are broke after it, so you have to start managing [money] as soon as you can, due to the semi-pro nature of the league.
STS: After spending several years playing D1 college football, you made the switch to coaching. How did your experience as a collegiate athlete influence your decision to move into the coaching sphere?
Jackson: It worked out kind of randomly for me to be at Adrian. The Head Football Coach there was my Head Coach in high school, his name is Joe Palka, and he left the year I moved back to Ann Arbor and started coaching there [Adrian]. My plan was to move back home and help out while I was re-applying for my last year of internship for my PhD. I wanted to help out coaching and it just worked out to where I could coach the quarterbacks while also being the General Manager. I do player development, retention, and programming for offseason workouts. At that level, you wear a lot of hats just because of the limited resources that are there, but it has been a lot of fun. The playing experience, especially being in Power 5 Division I starting games, definitely gives you a lot of prior knowledge to help them to the best of their ability. You know the game and you also get a sense of respect from your guys when they know that you’ve done it too. Being able to be around the sport and athletes and to pour into them as much as I can is what’s so fun about it.
STS: How would you describe your transition out of college athletics? What were some obstacles you faced?
Jackson: I jumped right into a PhD program and I think the business and wearing of multiple hats while doing a PhD helps. I knew I was going to need good support and a good community when I moved to Bloomington, so I was very adamant about making sure I was socializing and finding new friends, because it’s not like you have 115 guys to be around all the time in the world of academia. I was teaching, I was taking classes, I was doing research, I was bartending, and now I’m a coach. I kept myself busy and while I am not going to say it was an easy transition, because it definitely wasn’t, starting this PhD definitely helped change my focus and made it easier on me, but that’s not always true for all athletes. Going from playing football since I was in fourth grade to being done and then going into a PhD, it was definitely an adjustment. I relied a lot on community and support, which was huge for me.
STS: As a fifth year doctoral candidate at Indiana University, what is your personal mission in the field of Counseling and Sport Psychology?
Jackson: My personal mission goes back to a mentor and father figure of mine, Greg Harden (G). I worked with G from seventh grade until I went to college, and even when I went to college, I’d come back and we would go golfing or have lunch together. He was one of the biggest mentors in my life and though he wasn’t a Sport Psychologist, he did that type of work for over 30 years, and the stuff he poured into me to help me as a young kid up until being a grown man is something that I hope to do for others. G’s impact on me and his support of the mental side of things is what I hope to mold my career into. It’s cool to think about if I could potentially make coaching and sports psychology work together one day. In going into this role, I just want to have an impact on others and try to be half of what G Harden was.
STS: Why do you think it is important for the field of Psychology to have a separate concentration in the area of Sports? What sort of unique obstacles do athletes face?
Jackson: I heard someone say once you wouldn’t go get your eyes checked out by a foot doctor, you’d go see a foot doctor. So, you would go to see someone who has the specialization in the field of sport performance in psychology, though it is not necessarily just narrowed down to athletes. Right now, I have a client who is a competitive twirler and so you think about that and other types of competitive performers and you dive into different realms where pressure, anxiety, and perfection can be some of the heavier weights on an individual. There is a necessity of this concentration because of the varying experiences someone who is an athlete or performer could have, compared to someone who isn’t. The impacts competing can have on a person psychologically is why this field exists. I think what’s so cool is seeing the lessening of and sacking of the stigma with athletes’ mental health because of sport psychology. It is great for individuals who are athletes to get help because right now, people think of football players as modern-day gladiators, thinking there aren’t individuals behind those shoulder pads and those helmets, when in reality there is, and due to the nature of this, the athletes may have different presenting concerns.
Like I said earlier, you spend so many years of your life training in something, and having someone who can understand and be in your shoes with those concerns is why I think it’s so important. If you think about Michigan, look at Bryce Underwood who is 18 years old and getting paid several million dollars, but he’s also I assume going to class and being a student, while also being an athlete, and then there’s a person behind that too. With that, there are a lot of different factors that could be at play, but it’s easy to think that there’s nothing going on with him because he gets paid all this money and he’s the starting quarterback at Michigan. When you think about the pressure that comes with that–and I have this experience because I was the starting quarterback at two Power 5 schools–with social media especially, it’s hard. Social media is a dark hole especially if you’re an athlete. You could draw the comparison of Bryce Underwood’s DMs with someone who is just going to class, especially after a bad game, what that could look like. When I was at Maryland, we weren’t even very good and I was still getting death threats and messages about what I was doing wrong out on the field. The social media stuff is horrible for athletes, so the other thing I’d recommend outside of managing your money is to stay off social media or have somebody manage your accounts so that you don’t have to read some of the vile things that are said on the different platforms.
Going away from football, I got to work with gymnasts a few years ago, and there is so much pressure they are trying to work under. There is so much perfection they are striving for while also being in leotards, so not only do you have to be perfect in your performance, but also now you are working to have a certain image. This can put a lot of pressure on you, maybe you end up getting into disordered eating, and this can have a huge impact on your mental health. The nature of what athletes put themselves through is what makes this specialization so important in helping these people. I think of Simone Biles when she was having the twisties, essentially immense anxiety to not even trust herself to be able to do a skill, and she is the best in the world. It makes sense why there is training in the field specific to athletes so you can best serve them.
STS: You have had vast experience in the College Athletics sphere through both playing and coaching. How do you see your experience shaping the work you do with clients?
Jackson: There are two sides to this argument because being able to have the training and knowledge about sport performance psychology should be able to help you support an individual who is dealing with all the factors we just talked about. I’m biased because like you said, I have lived experience, and it’s my belief that having a little lived experience on top of being able to submerge yourself in the world of sport performance is beneficial. I talked about being a starting quarterback to then opting out and now being in academia, academia and athletics are two completely different routes. When you think about the lived experience, that goes a little bit more into my coaching stuff because for me now there is a little bit more of a mentoring side of it because I know what things look like for the guys having been in their shoes. When I do my mental skills stuff with them, I’m able to intertwine things I’ve experienced to help them in their situations, but it’s not like, “Here’s what I’ve done so this is what you should do,” it’s about being able to get their perspectives and better understand what our sessions should look like moving forward. Being able to say, “Yeah, I’ve strapped my cleats up the same way you do and went out and competed” certainly helps build rapport and can give them a sense of understanding.
Though if you look at when I was working with hockey, I don’t know anything about hockey and I was working with the Michigan team last year. It was great being able to learn but also having my own knowledge within my specialization. I have commonalities and understanding from being an athlete, but if it gets into specifics of a sport you may not know, it’s fun letting the athlete coach you up on what it is. I learned a lot about hockey and gymnastics last year, and I think that lets you be a better provider for the different populations you serve within the sport. Gymnastics and hockey are two completely different cultures, football and hockey are two completely different cultures, and that can have impacts on how athletes present and how they operate, and essentially what it looks like to do your job.
STS: What advice would you give to anyone in a competitive, performance-oriented position who may feel alone or isolated in their struggle?
Jackson: Whatever you have to do to pop that bubble, because thinking you are alone in a competitive environment might mean you are too caught up in your own bubble. That just means you may need to add more perspective to your situation. When I was a starting quarterback, I felt an immense amount of pressure, however, so does the starting quarterback at UVA, so does the quarterback at Adrian College, so does the quarterback at Saline High School. What can be easiest is to think “this is only happening to me,” but the universality of this feeling in people in the same field means you can look around to see how other people are managing it and that can help you. If you’re thinking about pressure and thinking ‘this is only happening to me,’ that sounds a little like a spiral of anxiety. We have to think about how we can be where our feet are and focus on how we can be the best version of ourselves right now. This is my initial reaction when someone says they think something is only happening to them, because I would at first challenge them. The way I feel like my sports background plays into my clinical background is that I love motivational interviewing and challenging my clients by trying to restructure some false thoughts that people can have about themselves. I think feeling isolated is an absolutely real feeling, but a lot goes into the perspective you have and understanding how you can manage some of those irrational thoughts.
STS: Why do you think it is important to Sack the Stigma?
Jackson: It’s okay to ask for help and get help. It’s okay to be vulnerable, but due to the nature of the society that we live in and the different cultures that people can be brought up and live in, a lot of people think they just won’t and they can rub some dirt on it and be alright. There are a lot of different societal pressures that can lead people to not ask for help. What has been really cool lately, especially in the last 5-10 years, is seeing people like Lebron James, Simone Biles, Deion Sanders, and Dak Prescott come forward and talk about mental health. If you can attack a stigma that tries to devalue something that is clinically proven to help varying groups, why wouldn’t you? Being able to go sit down and talk to someone about what is going on is good for you. Sometimes people have experiences, and so have I, where they sit down with someone and it’s not a good fit. I think one thing that scares a lot of people away is that initial experience, but you are doing this for yourself, so it’s okay to try again. That doesn’t mean you give up on what the goal is, that just means you go try somebody else. No matter if you’re dealing with trauma or you just need someone to talk things through with, there are varying levels to what therapy can look like. Continuing to Sack the Stigma will do nothing but help people across the world, so hopefully things keep trending in the right direction.
STS: How do you Sack the Stigma?
Jackson: Right now with Adrian College I’m the General Manager and Quarterbacks Coach, but I’m able to do some sport performance work with the team. Weekly, we have a mental skills group with varying topics and focuses, and I like to take from the kids on what they want to talk about. One thing that is not negotiable is gratitude. We do gratitude every time we do mental skills and although it can be corny, gratitude is something that has been backed by research and has been proven to help your overall wellbeing, anxiety, depression, and sleep. Gratitude is something I have my guys do every Thursday at six o’clock and it’s a way I continue to Sack the Stigma to show that it’s okay to talk about the good things, too.
Seeking out counseling or other mental health resources can feel incredibly challenging, especially for competitive, high-achieving performers and athletes. However, sport and performance psychology gives athletes the opportunity to connect with providers who have an extensive knowledge base about their unique challenges and can provide support. If you are feeling isolated in what you are going through, Jackson offers a word of advice: “We have to think about how we can be where our feet are and focus on how we can be the best version of ourselves right now.” If you are feeling alone, expand your perspective and do not give up on your goal of doing better for yourself.