LAKE FOREST – Some might think that entering a contract year would bring a healthy amount of stress to a player looking for their second contract in the National Football League.
But David Montgomery is not going to let it get to that point. as he starts his fourth season with the Bears
“I don’t look to giving any validation to anyone but God,” said Montgomery when asked about proving himself in a contract year. “I live my life. I’m on a spiritual journey right now for myself and being sure that I’m always focusing, keeping the main thing, the main thing, and really it’s God.
“I’m gonna go out every day with the opportunity to be the best I can be. When it’s all said and done, God will take me and put me where I need to be.”
Mindfulness is key for the running back who will be No. 1 on the depth chart when the season starts September 11th against the 49ers at Soldier Field. During his news conference on Wednesday, Montgomery revealed that he dealt with some mental health struggles over the past few years, but says the worst is behind him.
“I was just mentally depressed. I was depressed. Since I was here as a rookie, it had nothing to do with the coaches, it was more so with myself. Not meeting the standards or the expectations that I put on myself. Going back to creating those unnecessary pressures for myself,” said Montgomery. “A lot of people don’t understand, being in the NFL, us as individuals, we go through a lot of mental battles on a daily basis. But since we’re athletes and we’re professionals and we get a lot of money, that gets overlooked.
“But at the end of the day, we’re still human beings, and people forget about that. For me, for a while, I masked it. I let it be what it was and I just kinda let it be what it be. But at the end of the day, my mentality and my mental was the most important part of my life, and I could not continue to live my life unhappy.
“So I was just in a bad place, like mentally, like how I was looking at life, how I viewed it. I was unhappy, but it’s on the up-and-up now and I’m grateful and I’m blessed that God brought me here, and I’m here where I’m at.”
So what turned around his mentality ahead of the 2022 season? Montgomery pointed to family, including the upcoming birth of his child, who is due in December.
“Me knowing that I’ve got a child on the way and me knowing that I’ve got to be the best version of myself for my girl and be a better man for her. I want to be able to be the best father I can be for my child,” said Montgomery. “So whatever it takes and whatever steps I’ve got to take to be the best version of myself for my child, I’m willing to do. I took my pride aside to say that I was hurting and I was mentally going through it, I put my pride to the side to say, like, I needed this and I need to do it, not for me but for my child.
“My main focus is to make sure that I focused on God and just trying to be a better version of myself.”
With more clarity of mind, Montgomery now takes the field for his most important season with the Bears to date.