Super Bowl Champ Jeff Hostetler Advocates for Suicide Prevention
By Movieguide® Contributor
Former NFL quarterback and West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Hostetler joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast to share about his mental health initiative.
The QB United initiative is “a collective of NFL quarterbacks uniting as one voice, to maximize charitable impact and save lives.”
“I’ve been really blessed, and I played in the NFL for fifteen years at the quarterback position,” Hostetler began on the podcast. “As you go along, you watch other guys, you watch what they do, and you appreciate their talents, their way to handle themselves on the field. But you also appreciate them off the field. I found that through starting this Quarterback United, that I’m one of only thirty guys alive that has started and won a Super Bowl as a quarterback.”
“I always felt like, I watch these guys off the field, and they do some amazing things,” Hostetler added. “They’re in their communities, they’ve got their own foundations, they do some great things. But how powerful would it be to be part of this group and join together for a common cause.”
“That’s way bigger than me,” he said of his initiative. “This was a God thing.”
Hostetler continued, “So, this project started as an idea. I was approached by my nephew, if I could start a business what would it be? What if we had all these quarterbacks unite and help others to walk alongside us and do something that’s not controversial, something that everybody can rally around? Something that is really affecting our nation, our world.”
“We came up with suicide prevention because every time you turn around, every time you read the news, every time you turn on the internet, someone has died from suicide. So, we wanted to try and attack suicide,” he explained.
QB United shares that someone dies by suicide every 40 seconds.
“You start putting those numbers into perspective,” Hostetler said. “It’s devastating, it’s tragic and it’s something we can do and make a difference and change.”
West Virginia University Sports shared the QB United promotional video, which includes quarterbacks like Dan Marino, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Dak Prescott and many more.
“You matter. If you need immediate help, call 988. Otherwise, visit http://qbunited.org and share this post to help save lives,” the post read.
You matter 💛💙
If you need immediate help, call 988.
Otherwise, visit https://t.co/EVx3tLgBQJ and share this post to help save lives.#qbunited #worldsuicidepreventionday #suicideawarenessmonth#suicideawareness #afsp #wspd pic.twitter.com/ZPbO1EbcM7— WVU Sports (@WVUSports) September 10, 2023
“So far, over 100 million people have been reached with our #worldsuicidepreventionday video. A special thanks to all who shared it on September 10th! REMINDER: You are not alone. You matter. Your life is worth living,” QB United wrote on their Instagram.
“Jeff Hostetler is a former NFL quarterback who played from 1984-1998 with the New York Giants, Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders and Washington Redskins. He is a two-time Super Bowl champion, most famously known for his 1990 season in which he took over for Phil Simms late in the year and helped the Giants to their second championship in Super Bowl XXV, beating the Bills, 20-19, in one of the most dramatic Super Bowls ever,” Sports Spectrum reported.