West Virginia QB great, Utah County nonprofit on same team against suicide

PROVO — Jeff Hostetler stepped on to the field at halftime of West Virginia's recent road trip, when the Mountaineers trailed 28-10 en route to a 38-24 loss to then-No. 23 BYU, and received a loud cheer and warm welcome on a chilly early fall Friday night.

The West Virginia hall-of-fame quarterback and two-time Super Bowl champion with the New York Giants wasn't there to sing "Country Roads" or rabble-rouse with the small group of well-behaved WVU fans in the northwest corner of the stadium, any ways.

Regardless of the result, Hostetler marveled at the environment — in part created by the 63,917 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium and also the natural beauty of the state of Utah.

"What an amazing backdrop," he told KSL.com before the game. "It's awesome. Great atmosphere. I'm excited to be here."

He had important things to talk about Friday night, too.

The former NFL quarterback who won 18 games in two years as starting quarterback at West Virginia was honored as the 2025 Community Change Maker of the Year for his work with QB United, a consortium of current and former NFL quarterbacks who use their platforms to address suicide prevention and mental health awareness.

Since launching the "Stay Here" campaign in 2023, QB United has been credited with reaching over 225 million viewers with what the foundation calls a life-saving message of hope for teens, young adults and parents aimed at preventing death by suicide and reducing the stigma around mental health.

"Every 40 seconds, someone dies from suicide," said Hostetler, whose organization produced a video featuring dozens of current and former NFL quarterbacks including Joe Namath, Troy Aikman, Drew Brees, Jim McMahon and Steven Young. "That's a ridiculous number. We wanted to try to reduce the stigma around that, and talk about it. We want to use our voices to help magnify this issue, and try to get something done to prevent it."

The mission of QB United has found a partnership with the Cook Center for Human Connection, a Pleasant Grove-based nonprofit that provides expertise in mental health programs and resources for parents, schools and communities to address issues like teen suicide.

To address the 800,000 people who die each year by suicide, the Cook Center crafted free mental health resources at ParentGuidance.org, and are aiming to make even more resources available for parents, teachers and school administrators to re-shape how communities think and talk about mental well-being.

It was a natural collaboration with Hostetler and QB United, said Anne Brown, president and CEO of the Cook Center.

"'Stay Here' was so successful, reaching millions of people and playing on ESPN, on NBC, at the Super Bowl. But it didn't necessarily have a next step; Parent Guidance became that next step for them," she added. "And for us, they've helped us build awareness for mental health support in the communities that we serve."

Hostetler said he's been amazed at the number of people who have been impacted by suicide, and the wide-reaching scope of his foundation's battle against the country's mental-health crisis.

"Every time you turn around, you're hearing someone has died from suicide," he said. "You start to talk to people, and almost everyone has been touched by suicide — whether a friend, a family member, or someone they've worked with. Every 40 seconds, someone dies by suicide.

"We have the ability to stop it," he added. "That's our goal: bring awareness, reduce the stigma, and let's just talk."

That's where the Cook Center helps, said Brown, whose organization aims to help parents, families, schools and communities come together and learn that they aren't alone in dealing with mental well-being. That includes a new program at StaffGuidance.org that provides resources for school teachers, administrators and staff members to address mental health on the front line.

"There is often compassion fatigue for those caring for children," Brown said, "and we're creating systems where we're caring for the caregivers, the staff, the teachers, the bus drivers, the front-office staff and all the front-line workers supporting our kids all over the country."

All of that helped bring Hostetler, the 64-year-old native of York, Pennsylvania who famously quarterbacked the Giants to a Super Bowl on a torn ACL, to Utah for the first time.

Hostetler wasn't with the team, though he does work with his foundation on campus and at the WVU Medicine Children's Hospital in Morgantown.

It's not a traditional football job like offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach. But in many ways — most ways, even — it's impacting more people than the 60,000-plus that make it to a football game every Saturday in the fall.

"I'm an old guy; I let the coaches do their coaching, and they take care of the players and football," Hostetler said.

His work is no less important, either.

"We can help make somebody's day by just showing up and being around," he added. "And then you get more out of it than what you're given; those young kids going through so many difficult things hold real courage — and you leave there realizing that."

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