For Gregg, Dave and all the wounded brothers out there -
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Many of you have been following our friend, George Visger’s recent brain shunt emergency this past weekend. The good news is that George made a strong recovery from this recent episode and we’re posting more details that have just come in from George below. As gory and complex as some of it may sound, most people generally know little about these procedures which actually happen more frequently than get reported. The Washington Post ran another series recently on brain injuries in sports and provided detailed information and graphics on hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and the shunt surgery that’s used to alleviate the problem.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: We just received some good news from George Visger. This is reality for a lot of retired players:
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The day we lose empathy and compassion for our fellow man is the day we cease to be human.
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Our good friend and retired football veteran, George Visger, sent the following note out last night after 7:00 pm just before his wife, Kristi, took him to the hospital. Calls to his phone numbers have been unanswered so far and we’re asking everyone to send their thoughts and prayers to George and his family.
Picture a 259-pound young man of 21 who had lifted weights for 10 years in order to get a job with Kmart finally being hired by Kmart. Both his older brothers and father had worked at jobs below Kmart but never made it there. He had dreams of being better than all of them. During his interview, the supervisor told the young man with a wink, that there was a place for him at Kmart if he could put on 20 – 25 pounds of solid muscle without losing any speed. The caveat was it needed to be done before he started work in 3 months. Considering there were 50 others vying for his job and he had planned on buying his parents a new home and helping his older brother start a business, the young man returned to school, obtained a prescription for steroids, as he knew the supervisors request was not physically possible without chemical help. He returned to work 3 months later weighing 275 pounds while maintaining his speed as requested. Despite the fact he had fulfilled his obligation, his supervisor fired him after 6 weeks.
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We were all excited when the NFL finally got rid of Ira “Dr. No” Casson as Co-Chair of the NFL’s “Mild” Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. What surprised us was the selection of Dr. Richard Ellenbogen as co-chair of the newly-named NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee. Dr. Ellenbogen hails from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle as chief of neurological surgery and has been very proactive at the state level in legislation regarding concussions in youth athletics.
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Dave,
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I feel for the “terror” today’s players must be facing regarding a work stoppage. (To read the Sporting News article ‘NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith: ‘A lot of players are terrified’ about a work stoppage’ – Click HERE.) Luckily, I was able to support myself and family these last 28 years on the $65,000 plus partial playoff money (another $14,000) I made while a member of San Francisco 49′ers team in ’81. Shoot, if I wasn’t such an economically suave 23-year old when I was injured, I never would have survived the next 7 brain surgeries over the years. (The fact I had to sue for Workers Comp to get brain surgeries #2 and #3 paid did help keep the creditors at bay for a while.)
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Last week, the NFL announced the appointment of two doctors to their newly-renamed NFL Head, Neck and Spine Medical Committee (formerly co-chaired by Dr. No Ira Casson as the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury – MTBI – Committee). Here’s a clip from the New York Times’ Alan Schwarz:
George Visger
Fellow independent retired 49′er, George Visger, recently sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. He was kind enough to share his letter with all of us. George has managed to continue his ongoing battle with the NFL and the NFLPA for recognition and fair treatment of all retired football players despite his personal struggles from football-related brain damage and the subsequent brain surgeries he’s had to endure over the past 20+ years. George’s case is another perfect example of how the NFL stacks the deck against the players when it comes to disability and pensions after football. They know the average career is 3 years or less so they set the standard for qualification at 4+ years. Even at WalMart, an employee qualifies for FULL benefits after a 90-day probationary period. And you can be damn sure if you hurt yourself on the job on your second day of work, you’d be qualified for Workers Compensation benefits with little objection. Only in one of the most lucrative and physical professional sports do they set the standard so impossibly high for its employees. When will we actually see our Union step up for its retired players?