Ohio State offensive lineman Harry Miller announced Thursday that he will medically retire from football.
Miller released a statement on Twitter that outlined his decision, saying, “I would not usually share such information. However, because I have played football, I am no longer afforded the privilege of privacy, so I will share my story briefly before more articles continue to ask, ‘What is wrong with Harry Miller? That is a good question. It is a good enough question for me know to know the answer, though I have asked it often.”
Miller went on to explain that prior to the 2021-22 season, he informed head coach Ryan Day of his intention to take his own life, and that he was immediately put in touch with doctors at Ohio State who helped to support him.
“After a few weeks, I tried my luck at football again, with scars on my wrists and throat,” his statement read. “Maybe the scars were hard to see with my wrists taped up. Maybe it was hard to see the scars through the bright colors of the television. Maybe the scars were hard to hear through all the talk shows and interviews. They are hard to see, and they are easy to hide, but they sure do hurt. There was a dead man on the television set, but nobody knew it.”
Miller further explained his struggles with his mental health and said he hopes to vouch for people who are hurt but are not taken seriously.
“A person like me, who supposedly has the entire world in front of them, can be fully prepared to give up the world entire,” he continued. “This is not an issue reserved for the far and away. It is in our homes. It is in our conversations. It is in the people we love.”
He went on to say he was thankful for, “the infrastructure Coach Day has put in place at Ohio State, and I am grateful that he is letting me find a new way to help others in the program. I hope athletic departments around the country do the same. If not for him and the staff, my words would not be a reflection. They would be evidence in a post-mortem. God bless those who love. God bless those who weep. And God bless those who hurt and only know how to share their hurt by anger, for they are learning to love with me. I am okay.”
A five-star recruit out of high school, Miller played briefly in his freshman year in 2019 before starting all of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He was expected to start this past season, but was not in Ohio State’s lineup to begin the season at Minnesota and missed the majority of early-season snaps before being ruled out for the season in November.
Miller’s full statement can be read in the tweet below:
