The Colts’ decision to put offensive lineman Braden Smith on the non-football injury list in December didn’t go unnoticed, but the illness was not mentioned.
Now, we know what was afflicting the starting right tackle.
As Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star writes, Smith suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
“I was physically present, but I was nowhere to be found,” Smith told Erickson. “I did not care about playing football. I didn’t care about hanging out with my family, with my wife, with my newborn son. . . . I [felt like I] was a month away from putting a bullet through my brain.”
Smith described the torment he felt from the disease in dark, Biblical terms.
“There’s the actual, real, true, living God. And then there’s my OCD god, and the OCD god is this condemning deity. It’s like every wrong move you make, it’s like smacking the…
