Former Broncos Tight End Takes Career Path Into Mental Health

Denver Broncos tight end Julian Thomas was a brilliant athlete who achieved just about everything you can achieve in an NFL career. He made the Pro Bowl twice, played in the Super Bowl and was a trusted teammate of greats like quarterback Peyton Manning. 

But Thomas wondered why he wasn’t happy at times during his most accomplished moments, and that led him to become a clinical psychologist and performance coach who now works frequently with athletes on the kinds of mental health issues he once experienced, according to columnist Troy Renck of the Denver Post. 

Thomas also starred in basketball at Portland State, and one of his most noticeable traits was his intellectual curiosity. The 38-year old former Denver tight end is now living in Florida, and he was one of those players who wanted to know all the details along with the “why” behind everything his team was doing. 

The pivotal moment that led Thomas into his journey happened back in March of 2015, which was when Thomas signed a five-year deal for $46 million with the Jacksonville Jaguars and wondered why he didn’t feel happier. 

He said he had trouble “making sense of the money,” and it struck him how well trained athletes are on the physical part of what they do but often lack training on the mental and emotional side of the equation.  

Thomas retired in 2018, and he began a journey of what Renck called “self-discovery.” He studied both psychology and neuroscience, in part to gain a better understanding of CTE, the degenerative neural disease that often afflicts former football players and boxers when they get out of their sport. 

He became comfortable in a lab coat, per Renck, and Thomas eventually completed a one-year clinical residency at Nova Southeastern’s Psychology Services Center. He's now Dr. Julian Thomas, and he knows the importance of mental health in all aspects of life, including sports, and he can cite the statistics to support it. 

The primary ones include one in thre Americans experiencing an anxiety disorder, along with the fact that one in five will face a depressive disorder. 

Thomas went on to found Optimal Performance, and as part of that venture he developed an app that also functions as a performance coach. There’s a waiting list to use it, and it takes into account emotional factors in an athlete’s prospective physical performance. It’s an alternative to scrolling the internet in search of a solution, and Thomas is now providing answers to the kinds of questions he had back when he was a player.