SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Fred Warner was the NFL's highest-paid inside linebacker in 2021.
And he thought he was terrible.
That he wasn't close to the player everyone thought he should be. So the San Francisco 49ers star did what anyone would do. After a game, he turned to Twitter and slid into someone's direct messages.
Warner had been following sports psychologist Jim Afremow on the app because he liked the quotes Afremow posted from his books.
"I've always been enamored with the mind and the power of the mental part of the game," Warner said last week. "So when I was going through that rough patch, I was, like, so desperate. I'm like, man, let me just DM this guy and see if he answers back. And he did."
Warner had pulled his hamstring earlier in the season, and after he returned, he did not think he was playing well. Worse, he felt he was letting everyone down, and the weight of expectations started hitting him harder than he tackled running backs.
Hey doc, help me out …
"Fred is a great example of what I call competitive resourcefulness," Afremow said in a phone interview. "And so I wasn't surprised to get his message -- the best athletes in the world still want to be coached up."
Everybody can be overwhelmed by expectations and negative thoughts, he said.
"What I told him is that being an All-Pro doesn't make you less human," Afremow said, "and I think the work we did helped him understand what he was experiencing and how to get back to trusting himself and enjoying the hunt."
Warner and Afremow talked regularly the last few weeks of the season.
"I could see myself building more and more confidence in my game again," Warner said.
Afremow helped Warner give himself permission to believe in the expectations rather than worry about them.
"These expectations show you that you're doing something really well," Afremow said. "You'd rather have high expectations than low expectations. So trust what you bring.
"He obviously cares deeply about being a great player, leader and teammate, as well as doing well for all the fans, so that can all add up. So let's have fun and use that pressure to create diamonds."
Warner, now a seven-time team captain and four-time All-Pro, signed a five-year, $95 million contract extension before the 2021 season. When his play dropped, family members, friends and teammates asked if he was trying to do much because of the new deal.
"I didn't … but that thought was planted in my head then, and then that's all I thought about," Warner said.
Afremow asked Warner what animal the long-haired, violent linebacker identified with, and when the answer came back -- obviously -- lion, Afremow told him a lion doesn't question himself. He is still a lion even when he hunts and doesn't get a kill. Just like Fred Warner is still Fred Warner when he doesn't make a tackle or punch the football loose.
"They just hunt," Warner said. "Enjoy the hunt and don't worry about results or things that are out of my control. Jim helped me get back to where I was."
Warner used positive self-talk and writings, visualization and breathing techniques, and he and Afremow had nine sessions together over the phone.
"I don't think I worked with him much that following year because I didn't want it to become a crutch, either," Warner said. "I didn't want to feel like, man, I have to talk to this dude. I had all the answers to the test to begin with. I just needed somebody to kind of veer me back on the path, right?"
The king of the jungle also keeps an eye on his teammates' happiness as well as their success on the field.
"I try to keep a good feel of the locker room and the guys that I feel like might need that kind of a push," he said. "If all of a sudden they're a little off, I can kind of ask questions to make sure they're good.
"I can tell them things that helped me in the past, and maybe there is something they can hold on to."
No veterans did that for Warner when he was a rookie in 2018 because "let's be honest, athletes weren't talking much about mental health back then," he said.
Warner smiles. He is playing at a high level again, leading the 49ers (6-1) after he missed 11 games last season with a broken ankle. And his head is on straight, as he relearned five years ago to focus on hard work and enjoying the process rather than stressing out about the outcomes.
"Keep things simple and move on to the next play or game," Warner said.
He just needed a reminder from a doctor/stranger/new friend on social media.
"Winning is the destination," Afremow said. "The next play is the road."
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
