{"id":4789,"date":"2026-07-28T09:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4789"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:48:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:48:29","slug":"parents-share-importance-of-mental-health-care-after-utahn-nfl-player-jordan-devey-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4789","title":{"rendered":"Parents share importance of mental health care after Utahn, NFL player Jordan Devey dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Email<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Posted<br \/>\nand last updated<\/p>\n<p>SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 The parents of former NFL offensive lineman Jordan Devey are speaking out about the importance of &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4754&quot; title=&quot;Understanding <a href=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4734\" title=\"Millions of young people ask AI chatbots for mental health help. A doctor explains the pros and cons | CNN\">mental health<\/a> and what drives behavior&#8221;&gt;mental health<\/a> conversations and the potential <a href=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=4761\" title=\"How wildfires impact your health\">impact<\/a>s of CTE on players after the Super Bowl champion tragically took his own life<\/p>\n<p>Devey\u2019s loved ones say he died by suicide on Tuesday at the age of 38, leaving behind a wife and four children<\/p>\n<p>Some people are larger-than-life &#8211; and that would be an easy way to describe Jordan Devey<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was off the growth charts,\u201d said Jordan\u2019s mother, Leslie<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know when you\u2019re 6\u20197\u201d, you can really make an impact on people,\u201d said Jordan\u2019s father, Kerry Devey<\/p>\n<p>But his parents say it was Jordan\u2019s character that was truly outsized<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was always energetic, athletic, kind, generous, full of laughs,\u201d said Leslie Devey<\/p>\n<p>Jordan was born and raised in American Fork. Despite going to high school there, his parents pointed out he never played a single snap for the Cavemen<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead, he marched in the band,\u201d Leslie said. \u201cHe was a tuba player &#8211; which kind of goes to his size.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was also a devoted member of the LDS Church, serving on a mission to Costa Rica<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile he was in Costa Rica, he had a companion that was part of the Tongan national rugby team, and he was like, \u2018Man, when you get back, you got to play ball somewhere,\u2019\u201d said Leslie<\/p>\n<p>That led Jordan to Snow College, where he got back on the gridiron and his life changed<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe met the love of his life, Linsey,\u201d said Leslie<\/p>\n<p>The two got married, Jordan got a chance to play at D-1 Memphis University, and his career blossomed &#8211; he went on to play for six different NFL teams<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe played with the [New England] Patriots and has a Super Bowl ring with the Patriots when they beat the Seahawks,\u201d said Leslie<\/p>\n<p>He retired in 2021 and had since settled in Idaho with his family, where he\u2019d become the \u2018ultimate family dad\u2019 and a football coach at a local high school<\/p>\n<p>But his parents fear that his \u2018football body\u2019 was both a blessing and a curse<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe that he possibly suffered from CTE,\u201d said Leslie<\/p>\n<p>His mother, Leslie, believes he was fighting a battle none of his loved ones ever saw. On Tuesday morning, Jordan Devey tragically took his own life<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou think you\u2019re strong until something like this happens&#8230;and it brings you to your knees,\u201d said Kerry<\/p>\n<p>While they\u2019re grateful he got to be a part of the NFL, they suspect this neurodegenerative disease commonly linked to the sport played a part<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also feel like this was partly why he\u2019s not with us any longer at the age of 38,\u201d said Leslie<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt brings in the what-ifs,\u201d said Kerry. \u201cWhat if we\u2019d have done something differently? What if we could\u2019ve seen these signs?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet they will never know how much of a toll his sporting injuries took<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause of the condition of what happened with his death\u2026we\u2019re not going to be able to test for that and have a definitive answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jordan is leaving an unexpected legacy as an organ donor. His parents said they only found out he\u2019d done the paperwork when they got to the hospital in Boise<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes a tragedy into something meaningful that he can go and bless other people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Linsey and their four children are now without their \u2018ultimate family dad\u2019 &#8211; so it leaves Leslie and Kerry wanting to share the importance of talking openly about mental health<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want people to understand that it\u2019s okay to reach out,\u201d said Leslie. \u201cThat help is there &#8211; and there\u2019s nothing wrong with you for reaching out. You\u2019re not fighting the battle alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you are dealing with mental health struggles, emotional distress, or just need someone to talk to &#8211; call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988<\/p>\n<p>There is also an online fundraiser that\u2019s been put together to support Linsey Devey and her four children through this tremendous loss<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019d like to help them at this time, you can click here to learn more about the fundraiser<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3>Residents relieved to return home after Weber County fire posed threats<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>Adams fire latest<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>Washington Terrace residents relieved to return home after wildfire posed threats<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>Hundreds gather in opposition to proposed Tooele data center<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 The parents of former NFL offensive lineman Jordan Devey are speaking out about the importance of mental health conversations and the potential impacts of CTE on players after the Super Bowl champion tragically took his own life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[40,449,58,103,50],"class_list":["post-4789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-importance","tag-mental","tag-parents","tag-share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4790,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4789\/revisions\/4790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}