Joe Montana on physical woes of football

[Eric15]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...-49ers-qb-details-physical-woes-post-nfl-life

"My whole family likes to live on the edge, so some of the things I regret that I can't do with them," Montana told USA Today Sports. "Like snowboarding. I fell like 50 times within 30 yards off the top of the ski lift. ... I love basketball. I can't play basketball. I can shoot, but that's about it. I can't run up and down the court. My knee just gives out.

"I tried a little bit of skiing, but unfortunately when you get weight on one ski under my left knee, it's just not very strong. After my first back surgery, what kind of compounds things, is my sciatic nerve has been damaged. So the muscles along my sciatic nerve into my left foot have been numb since '86."

 

[bevosu]

Good but sad article about the recently deceased Kenny Stabler...

Ken Stabler, a Magnetic N.F.L. Star, Was Sapped of Spirit by C.T.E.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/sports/football/ken-stabler-nfl-cte-brain-disease.html?src=me

 

[FAL]

And then you have guys like Floyd Little, who at 73 looks like he is ready to suit up and show people how the game is played!

Great article about him in 55 Plus magazine which you can pick up free at Wegman's.

 

[OburgOrange]

And then you have guys like Floyd Little, who at 73 looks like he is ready to suit up and show people how the game is played!

Great article about him in 55 Plus magazine which you can pick up free at Wegman's.

View attachment 55335

Isn't that the AARP publication?

 

[tipphill]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...-49ers-qb-details-physical-woes-post-nfl-life

"My whole family likes to live on the edge, so some of the things I regret that I can't do with them," Montana told USA Today Sports. "Like snowboarding. I fell like 50 times within 30 yards off the to of the ski lift. ... I love basketball. I can't play basketball. I can shoot, but that's about it. I can't run up and down the court. My knee just gives out.

"I tried a little bit of skiing, but unfortunately when you get weight on one ski under my left knee, it's just not very strong. After my first back surgery, what kind of compounds things, is my sciatic nerve has been damaged. So the muscles along my sciatic nerve into my left foot have been numb since '86."

i am 67 y/0 never played football and my knee gives out as well. i have neck surgery and can no longer ski---i am not sure what the correlation is? is your injury more devastating than john q public ---who got paid much less for injuries in an occupation paying significantly less than he did it?

 

[orange79]

Isn't that the AARP publication?

Yeah. So ? SO???

 

[Crusty]

And then you have guys like Floyd Little, who at 73 looks like he is ready to suit up and show people how the game is played!

Great article about him in 55 Plus magazine which you can pick up free at Wegman's.

View attachment 55335

They have to catch you to hit you!!

 

[Ish88888]

i am 67 y/0 never played football and my knee gives out as well. i have neck surgery and can no longer ski---i am not sure what the correlation is? is your injury more devastating than john q public ---who got paid much less for injuries in an occupation paying significantly less than he did it?

AMEN!!!

 

[supp]

And then you have guys like Floyd Little, who at 73 looks like he is ready to suit up and show people how the game is played!

Great article about him in 55 Plus magazine which you can pick up free at Wegman's.

View attachment 55335

For every Floyd, there are 100s of Kenny Stablers.

I used to remember people saying about Jim Brown, that if he had stuck around a few more years, what could have been? I don't think that anyone begrudges him hanging it up early now.

I remember my dad taking me to see Whitey Ford at Camillus Mall at some point in the late 1980s. I had no idea who he was, just some really old guy signing autographs. How many of these NFLers will even make it to that point in their lives?

 

[gocraz4dasu]

i am 67 y/0 never played football and my knee gives out as well. i have neck surgery and can no longer ski---i am not sure what the correlation is? is your injury more devastating than john q public ---who got paid much less for injuries in an occupation paying significantly less than he did it?

The issue with that line of thinking is that a minuscule portion of football players make millions of dollars. My father is an ex ball player at Syracuse and he still keeps in touch with some of the players he played with and these are the guys who did not last long in the NFL. One is legally blind which his doctor has attributed to him being repeatedly hit in the head, another is basically immobile and riddled with various injuries, and my father himself has had 10 and soon 11 surgeries and can't even stand straight up without having to bounce. That is only the tip of the ice berg. These are players that are about a decade younger than you as well. Sitting with my father and discussing the plights of the many players he played with is heartbreaking. These were incredible athletes who struggle to do simple things like walking, or seeing, ten to twenty years after finishing playing football (which for them was their early twenties).

Also, not being able to ski at 67 =/= to not being able to run at 45, being unable to raise your arm above your chest at 40 or being legally blind at 50. And this is without mentioning many of the more terrifying neurological problems.

Keeping your eyes closed about the, sometimes, severe physical and mental consequences of football, doesn't mean they are going away. It isn't just the superstars who are afflicted with these issue either. They are normal people who became student athletes out of the love for the game and the dream for a better life. It's not just all millionaires complaining about a few aching pains and the occasional headache. They are serious problems plaguing and/or killing a lot of the athletes we loved, and love, to watch every Saturday/Sunday.

 

[Ish88888]

Cry me a river Joe. There are plenty of us that played college sports with the same aches and pains. Minus the millions. Job Hazzard. The entire concussion, joint pain thing 20 years later is getting old.

 

[AZOrange]

Cry me a river Joe. There are plenty of us that played college sports with the same aches and pains. Minus the millions. Job Hazzard. The entire concussion, joint pain thing 20 years later is getting old.

Man your H0T Takes on this subject are real weird. No offense but I guarantee that the aches and pains we experienced in college are nothing like what happens in the NFL...

 

[Fly Rodder]

I work with a guy who played in the NFL for a couple of years in the 80s. He's not loaded by any stretch of the imagination. He hobbles around the office and can barely turn his head. Football is a brutal sport that chews guys up slowly. It's not the singular event like a concussion or ACL tear that gets them, but the repeated head trauma and grinding wear on the body.

Everyone thinks they're invincible when they're 18 or 23. The concept of their future is abstract. It's tragic that kids can lured into ruining their bodies for a very small chance of them making a lot of money or short term glory. A rational decision can be defended when it is based on full knowledge and awareness, which I don't think everyone has.