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When Packers draft pick Cole Madison stepped away from football last year, there were reports connecting the absence to the suicide of his former Washington State teammate Tyler Hilinski.

But upon his return to Green Bay, Madison said that wasn’t true, and that he took the year off to focus on getting himself right.

“This last year was really just focused on myself,” Madison said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. “Not even football or nothing, just myself and my mental health and everything like that. I was dealing with a lot of things off the field for a long time that I was putting off, and it finally caught up to me, and I had to take care of that, make a grown man decision. I did that, and then after that I decided I wanted to come back and play some football. So that’s why I’m here.

“At that point, football — I love football — but at that point, it was my health, and my life was on the line. I had to go help myself before my football career. If I didn’t get my chickens in order back then, I don’t think I’d be here right now.”

The Packers referred to it as a “really pleasant surprise” when he returned to the offseason program this month. He was placed on the did not report list when training camp last July.

While his teammate’s tragic end was alarming, Madison said the things he struggled with predated Hilinski’s January 2018 death.

“I was going through some stuff for a long time that I was putting off, and they caught up to me with the decisions off the field I was doing,” Madison said. “I wasn’t making good decisions, and it led to bad thoughts. This was before Tyler. Tyler, if anything, helped me with knowing that other people go through things, too. It was a little light at the end of the tunnel — light in a dark area. This stuff originated a long time before Tyler. . . .

“If anything, when that happened, it was a first beginning step of a wake-up call for me, how I needed to handle my mental health was after that entire situation. Me and him were great friends. I would have never known any of that was going on or vice versa. I had my demons going on, and no one had any idea what was going on. It’s just one of those things of taking that step when you’ve got those things and not to just bat them down and talk to someone and opening up.”

The football industry as a whole is more comfortable talking about a guy coming back from a broken arm or torn ACL than mental health issues, so the good news is that Madison is in a better spot now, so that he can continue his work as a healthier person.