Chiefs’ Clyde Edwards-Helaire discusses struggles with PTSD

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — From time to time during his four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and as recently as earlier in training camp, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire has missed practice time because of what the Chiefs called an illness.

Edwards-Helaire recently posted on his X account the reason for his absences is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and talked Thursday about his experiences.

“Sometimes I’m admitted into the hospital, something like I can’t stop throwing up and it’s just, I [don’t] know [anything] pretty much to stop it,” said Edwards-Helaire, the Chiefs’ first-round draft pick in 2020.

“Real bad dehydration … but it’s really just mentally just not being there. It is one of those things where early on guys who kind of pay attention like Travis [Kelce] and Kadarius [Toney], at times they can even, they’ll know ahead of time like, ‘OK, Clyde’s not laughing, he’s not giggling, he’s not himself.'”

Edwards-Helaire provided an exact date, Dec. 22, 2018, as the start of his PTSD. He didn’t go into details other than to say he and a friend found themselves in what he called “a self-defense situation.” Edwards-Helaire at the time was in college at LSU.

Two LSU football players were trying to sell an electronic item on that date when one of them fatally shot an 18-year-old man trying to rob them, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police said. The police didn’t identify the players, but The Associated Press reported that Edwards-Helaire was one of them.

“I would say that’s probably where a majority of things stem from,” said Edwards-Helaire, 25. “I wouldn’t necessarily say everything stemmed from that. I have best friends that passed away at young ages from gun violence and just not being in the right places at the right time and just knowing that I have people that are close to me or around me who … could be in the same spots that I am.”

Edwards-Helaire revealed his PTSD publicly for the first time with his post on X.

“My first couple of years, you just try to block everything out and it’s like, ‘Oh, at some point I’m going to get over it,'” he said. “And you start to realize that that just doesn’t happen. You get older and you realize, ‘Hey, no matter the age, no matter the person, no matter the situation, everyone needs help at some point.’ It takes courage to talk about it and having PTSD and dealing with it once people kind of bring it up, it is not something that I’d always want to talk about. I never really know how my body will react or my mind, it is just something that I can’t really pinpoint or know exactly what’s going to happen.

“I feel like talking is a big thing, but it is just getting over that hump personally, being able to know that honestly, just everybody goes through things good [and] bad … It’s a steppingstone. I’m just 25 years old and trying to live the rest of my life healthy.”