Colton Underwood wants to help student athletes with mental health

Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Masked Singer season 11, episode 6, “Transformers Night”

We were bummed to see former NFL and The Bachelor star Colton Underwood get unmasked this week on The Masked Singer, but we couldn’t agree more with his call for a queer dating show.

Apart from his call for representation, we’re also here for his focus on mental health and the work he’s doing to bring that topic to the forefront.

“I have a bill in Congress right now [The Targeting Emotional and Mental Stability (TEAMS) Act],” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s been introduced in both the House and the Senate. It’s bipartisan. Cory Booker is our lead Democrat, Senator John Boozman from Arkansas is our lead Republican. We have endorsements from NAMI, the NCAA.”

The plan, he said, is to start with student athletes and continue to collect data with a focus on helping student athletes stay focused and tap into their mental health.

“Student athlete suicides are on the rise in our country right now just with added pressures and NIL — and you just watched it with women’s basketball,” he said. “These athletes and these kids are on the biggest stage to perform and the pressures that are on them are so immense. So I’m really focusing my efforts right now on giving back to the mental health [community] and just… it’s true to what I went through.”

Underwood admitted the pressures of being an athlete and a star got to him and that he, like many others, had a mental health crisis and mental breakdown during the COVID lockdown in 2020.

“I just want to help future generations,” he said before adding, “I’m just really leaning into saying yes and trying new things and being a little more adventurous in a carefree way.”

We’re stoked to see him in the era of yes, and we hope his dreams of a queer dating show and mental health support come to fruition.