How Tyler Hilinski’s former teammates champion mental-health services
Los Angeles Times
The notes of smooth jazz float through Gabe Marks’ office in Mar Vista, a blank space devoid of fuss.
A few years ago, Marks’ life was more about violence. Glory. Pain. A decorated wide receiver for Washington State, he spent his days roaming fields of green, releasing the anger with every route, catch and stiff-arm.
Now, his only company in this room is a couple of paintings, a long-stemmed flower on his desk and the clients he sees daily as a clinical psychologist. His thoughts are contained within four eggshell-white walls, the only connection to the outside world a window above his desk. He can’t hide behind a helmet anymore.
“This is my natural habitat,” Marks said, fingers toying with the buttons on his flannel shirt. “I like being in my solitude, to be able to reflect and think.”
In January 2018, Marks was a few months removed from giving up on his NFL dream and had started working on a master’s degree in clinical psychology when he got the news: Former Washington State teammate and friend Tyler Hilinski had died by suicide.
Suddenly, the concept of mortality didn’t seem so far off. Marks was one of many from those Cougars teams on the fringes of professional football, and the circumstances of the loss made them turn inward, finally addressing the anxieties from a career under the spotlight that they all felt but never discussed.
A few years later, Marks is practicing at Mission Harbor Behavioral Health, inspired to one day serve as a counselor for professional teams and players. He’s one of a few on that Washington State team who’ve taken a particular interest in mental health in football after Hilinski’s death.
“That was just a tipping point, I think, for everybody, all the collective band of brothers that were involved with that program,” Marks said. “We just had to take a step back and had to reevaluate a lot of things in our lives. A lot of us, our trajectories went in slightly different directions after that moment.”
They couldn’t help Hilinski. It’s taken many of his former teammates a long time to come to terms with that. But maybe they can help someone else.
