Former athletes share stories of mental health struggles, recovery at Detroit event

(CBS DETROIT) – May is Mental Health Awareness Month, bringing some of those tough-to-have conversations to light. 

Several of those conversations took place Monday night at MGM Grand in Detroit.

“I was labeled a football hero, to a crackhead zero,” says former NFL tackle and three-time Pro Bowler Luis Sharpe.

Sharpe was one of the several former professional athletes in attendance Monday for the second annual Walk and Talk of Detroit.

“We have a national epidemic,” says Sharpe.

While stories were shared throughout the evening, Sharpe looked back to his stories of combatting substance abuse, spending time in prison, and most importantly getting clean.

His daughter, Rebekah Sharpe, who emceed, not only watched her father get clean but recalled her experiences as well.

“It truly is the embodiment of turning pain into purpose and allowing my trauma to become a testament to be able to let other people know like, hey we went through this but it didn’t happen to us it happened for us,” said Rebekah Sharpe. 

The evening benefits the Fund Recovery’s Hall of Fame Family Recovery fund. This fund provides money in the form of scholarships for the medical and behavioral health treatment of athletes and families.