Joe Barksdale started for the Arizona Cardinals at right tackle for the final four games of the 2018 season. They were the final four games of his seven-year NFL career before retiring.
Barksdale is now a musician and stand-up comedian and is doing all this with relatively new information.
Barksdale discovered after his retirement that he has autism.
He spoke about it on the Today Show and on the Adulting on the Spectrum podcast.
Barksdale said he dealt with depression for more than 20 years. After his NFL career, his therapist, who also worked with many patients with autism, noted Barksdale had some common traits.
“We talked about like, you know why I don’t like being around people, and I told her like, I feel like, I’m always acting like what I’m supposed to be, and not like who I am, and I feel like one day someone’s gonna realize, you know, I’m not like everybody else,” he explained on the podcast. “And that was what kind of opened up the doors for that conversation. It led to her referring me to an autism specialist, but that’s, that was the process that led to my diagnosis.”
He believes his autism actually led to him playing football.
“I was at an engineering camp,” he recalled. “And this kid was saying something he was being sarcastic. I thought he was being serious and I thought people who say things that stupid should be slapped. Before I could tell myself not to slap him, I was already slapping him. But it was a joke, you know? He stood up and starts flipping over tables, punching computers, and we both got kicked out, but only one of us left with a bill. So thankfully, that wasn’t me, because I didn’t break into computers.
“But if we had known I was autistic back then, I would have never got kicked out of that camp. And getting kicked out of the camp is what got me into football, because I needed something to do over the summer, to stay out of trouble. And I was like, maybe I can try to get in shape playing football.”
He explained he has always had a hard time talking to people and understand emotions.
His diagnosis has been helpful for him.
“It made me more comfortable with who I am,” he said. “I didn’t change as a person, but it did affect the marriage positively in terms of us learning and knowing more about each other, and going into a deeper relationship.”
Barksdale has had two singles released this year.
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