In reply to: Don’t recall meeting him but by all accounts a great guy * posted by Moff
But I didn’t think my lowly poster status would prompt a response. Good to know he was 5 years ahead of me.
He was then 51, 20 years post retirement from the NFL.
"Without all the pills I take, I couldn't even be speaking with you right now.” … “In fact, talking is one of the most difficult things about my condition. There's so many muscles involved in making the mouth form sounds and words that it's really noticeable when I don't have medication."
He was noted to have suffered 15 concussions, including one in high school and two at ND, and to have spent a week in the hospital after one in 1973 at a Dolphins practice, before being traded to Buffalo.
The article said some former teammates noticed, at a 1994 golf outing, that his speech and balance were off, and the diagnoses was first post-concussion syndrome and later a mild form of Parkinson’s
"I'm about the stage where [actor] Michael J. Fox is. I'm like him, just hoping some cure is found before things get too much worse."
"Right now, it's not life-threatening…. I don't work. I can't do some things physically. I want to spend as much quality time with my kids as I can because there's a chance I'll be shuffling along like Muhmammad Ali does.”
"Who's to blame? No one's to blame. But I think people should know the damaging effects of a concussion when they watch these games."
So it sounds like it was a three decade struggle for him and his family. May he Rest In Peace
I would also add that it is highly doubtful that he only had 15 concussions; he likely had many, many more than that, and most either went unreported or simply were shrugged off as "part of the game." I spoke with someone who had played under Kuharich and Devore and he mentioned at least 3 instances of getting knocked out during practice and mentioned that it was quite common in those days; he was a running back, and the OL and DL have repetitive hits, and in those days it was full go, every practice. This player also ended up with Parkinson's, though it was not necessarily tied back to his football hits. He also did have several mental health issues the rest of his days as well, but again not necessarily football related.
Bill Walsh was the first one to start easing up in practice (not counting John Gagliardi, who was doing it at a much smaller level years prior) to try and save on wear and tear, but it took the rest of the game years to catch up. Hell, anyone who played for Joe Moore can talk to you about "batting practice" and those repetitive hits.
We're definitely trying to get better at it. I was working with a college OL today, going over tape and trying to walk through getting his head out of his blocks. The hard thing is that it really starts from your feet in that if you get too far out on your toes (as opposed to being on your heels) your head will start to lead you as a way to regain balance. This is counter intuitive to how we walk/run when we are trying to "attack," so it's actually a difficult adjustment for kids as they're learning the game. We need good educators as coaches who are going to really stress the proper fundamentals of blocking and tackling (which, IMO is still poor at the college and NFL level). We have to have guys studying tape, and we need to take whatever precautions that are needed. It needs to start in practice; we can't count on the refs to simply enforce the rules and teach the game during competition--the game often moves too fast for them, and they aren't even always convinced at what they're seeing.
article because (albeit 22 years old) it is behind a paywall, but one additional thing he said was how the doctors on the sideline would simply ask how many fingers they were holding up. He said unless you were knocked out, you were going back in.
As I mentioned in another post, when a simulation video was posted the other day on Twitter purporting to show how much the brain sloshes around just by a hit to the forehead with a hand, TB responded that hits like the one depicted happen at least 30-40 times per game for a lineman.
full-go practices at least 3 times a week were the norm as recent as 15 years ago for many programs. Back in my day (early 90s) it was 4 days a week.
That shit adds up.