Nyheim Hines stopped in the parking lot of the hospital where his mother, Nanette Miller, was earlier this winter. The Colts season is over - sooner than anyone expected - and Hines’ focus has shifted to caring for his mother.
Hines was there because Miller, who has been battling muscular dystrophy for more than a decade, suffered a stroke on her way home to Raleigh after spending Christmas with her son in Arizona last December.
She was in the middle of something that would represent a six-week stay in the hospital, and her recovery was slower than usual due to muscular dystrophy.
“I remember that everything didn’t go well for about a week, I was still upset about the season, I remember going to the hospital and being in the car and crying for a moment to recover,” Hines said. “It’s hard to see your mom in a vegetative state.”
Hines and his twin sister Naja have done a tremendous amount of care for their 58-year-old mother since she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when they were in high school. She is better after the stroke - Hines was afraid that she would never see her mother walking again, but she walks a few hundred feet every day until she regains her strength.
But seeing his mother worsen from muscular dystrophy - a rare, genetic condition involving more than 40 different specific diseases, including ALS, which causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass - was difficult. She also broke her hips, and her speech and strength have declined over the years. Niheim and Niah had to make tough decisions and have tough conversations that most people might expect with and about a parent in their 40s or 50s, not their mid-20s.
And for Hines, balancing the mental path of watching his mother’s illness progress with the demands of being a football player is an incredibly difficult challenge.
“Especially during the season, I never manage to escape from stress from time to time,” Hines said. “Here, even if it goes well - it’s not that we are under stress, but I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best I can be. I know I have a role here and they depend on me to do it 100 percent, and I’m proud of that every day.
“And then I’ll have a bad day here for a few days, then I go home and answer the phone, and my mother is fighting or my mother has fallen - like, my mother has been in the hospital for more than 100 days since 2020. It was difficult. It was really hard - every day is not good here, and even on good days it can pass because my mom may have fallen or something happened, or she is not happy and struggling.
“Honestly, I don’t know how I could handle it, but I had great support.
Hines and his twin sister find strength in each other to get through difficult times - to the extent that one day Naja cried for their mother and called Nijheim, who was already crying before his sister called. Talking to Niah - the “stone” in helping their mother, he said - helps, because he doesn’t have to explain or retell some of the difficult things they go through.
But the support of Hines’ professional family with the Colts was also important for his mental health. General manager Chris Ballard and head coach Frank Reich regularly check with Hines how his mother is, and he also visits team clinician Elizabeth White every few weeks.
And while Hines isn’t always the one to open up about what’s going on with his mom, he’s playing for a team that unequivocally supports his path to mental health, starting at the top with the Irsai Kicking The Stigma family initiative.
“From Colt and his family, I had great support,” Hines said. “So it’s not just me - and I’ve had a lot of stress because doing these things takes a lot of time, requires some money and is emotionally difficult for you. I’m glad I had a lot of support. “
There is a significant mental tribute to Hines’ mother as well. She is not even 60 years old; at that age, there are still many things he wants to do and see - and work on his own. But it was morning when she fell and broke her hip at 3 o’clock in the morning; her nurse was not supposed to show up until 10 a.m., so she had to wait alone for hours before help arrived.
Hines was called to say that his mother broke his hip on the way to the Colts Institution that day.
“My mother is 58. She is still young,” Hines said. “But at the age of 25, my sister and I are like hey, you need help in life, you need someone with you 24/7. And that’s hard too because my mom is young. That’s hard for her. And it’s even harder to tell her like hey, we’re both not here, if you fall it’s hard.
“… In our youth, we have to tell our mother certain things that she can and cannot do as if we were parents, right? And we really aren’t. So it was really stressful, and it’s hard. “
But Hines persevered behind a lot of support and an extraordinary outlook on life. He thinks, well, I’m a rare player - a 5-foot-9 defender who has established himself as an explosive, versatile weapon that can run between shots and catch passes from the slot - so I could lead a rare life.
“I think the uniqueness of that helped me in this because it’s a rarity and many times I just wonder, God, why is this happening to me?” “It’s so rare,” Hines said. “I don’t have help, I really don’t know that many people with that. And then I sit down and look at my life, it’s like my athletic career.
“… That’s why I’m trying to use that in my personal life and I’m trying to set those parameters so that I can’t ask God why, and not complain about the cards I got, but play the hand I got.”
A successful career in the NFL and a mother with muscular dystrophy made Hines a stronger person. He knows that he is never alone, even if he sometimes feels that way - he has his sister, he has a family, he has his agent and people with Colts who support him.
And he and Niah are inspired by the struggle in their mother. Hines goes through exercises or days when he is tired of thinking about the difficulties his mother is facing, such as things that are as simple as getting out of bed and brushing her teeth. No giving up at Nanette Miller - and no giving up at Niheim Hines.
“It was a battle, but shoot,” Hines said, “without it I probably wouldn’t be here.”