Cole Madison did not quite clear up how he spent his way year away from football.
He didn’t need to.
The offensive lineman, last year’s Packers fifth-round pick, is back with Green Bay after sitting out all last season with what the team had termed as a personal issue. Madison said he had to work on his mental health, and he suggested his time away from the game may have saved his life.
“I love football,” the 24-year-old told reporters Tuesday, via the Green Bay Press Gazette, “but at that point it was my health, and my life was on the line. I had to go help myself before my football career. If I didn’t get my chickens in order back then, I don’t think I’d be here right now.”
It’s a dark thought and one Madison must know too well. The guard played at Washington State from 2013–17 with close friend Tyler Hilinski, a quarterback who committed suicide in January 2018.
Madison said Hilinski’s death did not trigger an awakening in him, saying he had struggled with his own mental health before the suicide. But he knows what could happen if it’s not addressed.
“That decision to really go out and seek help,” Madison said, “especially for men our age, going out and starting that process is real tough. Real tough. If I had to make it again, I’d do it again. Because it was the greatest decision I think I ever made.”
Now he’s back on a line that struggled to protect Aaron Rodgers last season, which GM Brian Gutenkunst called a “really, really pleasant surprise.”
“This last year was just really for me day by day, taking everything day by day,” said Madison, a Washington native. “It wasn’t really looking into the future. Then that day came where I was like, ‘Hey, you know, I’m coming back. I want to play some ball.’ So that brought us here.”