To those who have dedicated their lives to studying the minds and mental well-being of elite athletes, this feels like a moment. At least they hope it is. They hope Penn State kicker Joey Julius will no longer serve as an outlier. That his openness and honesty about struggling with an eating disorder, an illness not typically associated with football players, will be a beacon for others.
For people such as Mark Aoyagi, director of sport and performance psychology at the University of Denver, the hope is Julius will help change a culture that has discouraged weakness of this kind, simply by embracing the idea that it's OK to admit that help is necessary.