In a job where everyone’s constantly being compared—by their stats, their contracts, their Madden ratings—Falcon’s running back Todd Gurley II is finding ways to keep his head straight. On the latest episode of GQ’s Instagram Live show The Drop-In with Mark Anthony Green, Gurley shared some wisdom on staying mentally healthy in a pressure cooker career. That means staying true to himself and tuning out the noise.
“The biggest thing that’s helped me out was just being real with yourself,” he says. “I always tell myself you can never be too high, you can never be too low, you just gotta be even-keeled, right in the middle. You’re gonna have your good seasons, you’re gonna have your bad seasons…Most people say, I gotta prove this, I gotta prove that. Deep down inside, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”
That includes the trolls. “Most stuff on the internet is just disrespectful—you might have 100 comments and there might be only three negative comments,” says Gurley. “But you can’t ignore the positive…You have to be able to take it all in.”
“And sometimes, shit, they’re telling the truth,” he says. “And sometimes they’re not.”
What it comes back to is Gurley’s faith—in prayer, and in himself. “In sports they try to always say, who’s the best running back, or who’s the best receiver?…Why always try to compete about who’s the best? I know it’s in our nature to be super-competitive, but we’re super blessed.”
Blessings don’t mean he can’t demand change, though. Following a recent Instagram Live panel he held with fellow athletes like Jalen Rose and leaders like Martin Luther King III, Gurley emphasized that he feels compelled to speak his mind, crediting players who raised their voices before him—like Malcolm Jenkins—for paving the way.
“When you’re a young player you’re trying to focus on football,” he said, “but as of right now there’s no excuse not to speak up. The majority of the league is Black, so we gotta stand for something. And we need our league to back us up.”
As he prepares to kick off what will hopefully be a full (but fan-less) season as a newly minted Atlanta Falcon, Gurley still has his sights fixed on the positives of joining a new team. “It’s like a fresh start for me,” he said. “Atlanta is like home for me, and they’ve welcomed me with open arms. I’m just looking forward to playing with the best.”
