*Trigger Warning: Mentions of g-n violence and dr-g abuse*

It was the night of December 22, 2018, when Clyde Edwards-Helaire and his best friend, Jared Small, headed to North Baton Rouge to sell a PlayStation. That was all it was meant to be – a 10-second exchange, considering everything had already been discussed on Facebook Marketplace. But when the LSU students met the buyer, things took a turn for the worse.

18-year-old Kobe Johnson pointed a gun to Jared’s head, and Clyde sprung into action. “My only reaction was, either I’m about to watch my best friend lose his life or do something about it,” the Chiefs running back told former NFL player Ryan Clark on The Pivot Podcast. With both his mother and stepfather having served in the military, Edwards-Helaire almost always carried a firearm. So, he pulled the trigger that saved his best friend but took the life of Johnson.

The LSU Tigers running back got back on the gridiron in 2019 despite how he was feeling about the incident and his PTSD symptoms. A year later, the Chiefs drafted him in the first round, and now, Clyde Edwards-Helaire has four seasons under his belt. However, when training camp came around this year, the 25-year-old’s PTSD symptoms aggravated, compelling Andy Reid to place him on the non-football illness list. The running back hasn’t registered any minutes in 2024 so far as a result, but as he looks to return to the gridiron, he shared the unheard story that led to him joining the Chiefs.

Ryan Clark asked, “What are some of the conversations you and Andy [Reid] had when it came to you getting the treatment you needed to recover?” Going through the draft process and the Combine interviews, Clyde had to face a rough time finding an NFL franchise. “I literally interviewed with all 32 teams, and they all asked the same question. That 15 minutes on the clock was literally me telling a story, just going over the same things and going through my past traumas with every team just so they could be in my business.” But the Chiefs were different. Andy Reid was different.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire explained, “The thing that shocked me the most when I went in to interview with the Chiefs was, at the time, the offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said, ‘We know about the story. We good.’ And then, Coach Reid just sat back in his chair and was like, ‘What story are we talking about?'” While every other franchise made it a point to discuss only the 2018 incident, it turned out that Kansas City hadn’t even told the main person in charge about it. Maybe the Chiefs refrained from telling Reid, considering everything he’d gone through with his children, too.

The 66-year-old lost his eldest son, Garrett, in 2012 when he passed away after an accidental overdose. Britt, Reid’s second eldest, has also had run-ins with the law for dr-g addiction. Whether it was this or the fact that the Chiefs didn’t find it necessary to make Clyde Edwards-Helaire relive that traumatic 2018 incident, Andy Reid’s reaction gave the running back all the confidence that Kansas City could become his home.

The 25-year-old continued, “He didn’t know at all. I mean, I literally looked at him in his eye the whole time, not even looking at anybody else in that room, and I remember telling him that, and he gave me one of the biggest hugs that I’ve had in a while.” That said, Reid wasn’t the only one who played a key role in helping Clyde through the recovery process.

When the pandemic was ongoing, the Chiefs running back was just a rookie at that time. Having to isolate because of COVID-19 protocols could have made him feel lonely at times. However, Travis Kelce didn’t allow it, as he kept tabs on Clyde, “The only person who reached out to make sure I’m good, text me on random days, was Travis.”

Even today, when Edwards-Helaire decided to open up about his struggles on The Pivot Podcast, Kelce retweeted the post, “GBC!! My good brotha for life! Y’all gotta tune into this one. One of the strongest men I know!” What is GBC? It’s ‘Good Brother Clyde.’ That’s what Kelce calls him. Recalling the tight end’s support, Clyde added, “The amount of time that I was spending with Travis was unreal. I really look at him as a big brother and I needed somebody to lean on.”

That said, this wasn’t the only thing Clyde spoke about in the interview, as he shared further details on his journey.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire shared his story to help others navigate through PTSD

On The Pivot Podcast, Ryan Clark asked the 25-year-old what his thought process was before he pulled the trigger in December 2018. “The very first thing was, I don’t want my best friend dying. Second is, if that happens to him, what’s stopping the g– from coming towards me after the fact? And it being two of us gone for no reason.” 

Now that almost six years have gone by, while Clyde hopes no one has to go through what he has since that incident, he also feels he could be saving lives by sharing his story, “I feel like I’m actually saving lives by talking about my situation and showing that you can wake up every morning and get through. I’m doing a lot better than I have been these past four years. Mentally, physically, everything is just on the up and up. I’d say I’m probably the healthiest I’ve been since I came into the league.” 

Seeing Clyde slowly coming back to himself on the gridiron would surely make the Chiefs Kingdom feel proud of their running back.