Dave Pear's Blog

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March 4, 2012
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De,
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On January 6, 2012, I met with Congresswoman Linda Sanchez at her southern California office with Mr. Mike Greenhaulgh, part owner/operator of the Sacramento Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment center where I have been receiving treatments for the last two years, and Dr. William Duncan, President of the Hyperbaric Medical Association and Capital lobbyist. My 49ers teammate, Dan Bunz, and I also met with Senator Ted Gaines on December 27 and February 22, 2012. All the meetings were to address the legality of the NFL’s lack of benefits for its injured employees. Both Congresswoman Sanchez and Senator Gaines are looking into additional Congressional hearings on this matter.
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We are trying to gather solid information to ascertain the status of former employees/players of the NFL. For many years, we have been inundated with mixed information regarding the percentage of former employees/players who actually qualify for NFL retirement benefits, the percentage of former employee/players forced to draw SSI and life expectancy of former employee/players. With you being the President of the NFL Players Association, in charge of securing and overseeing the player’s/employee’s benefits, I am requesting data on the following:

1. What is the average life expectancy of a former NFL employee/player? Many years ago a letter was issued from the NFL encouraging players to take their retirement benefits early as most would not live to retirement age. This was followed up with a recent survey letters asking if we were still alive. I had been told for years that the average life expectancy of a former NFL employee/player was his late 50’s.
2. What percentage of all pre-93 employees/players who played in the NFL actually played long enough to reach the 4-year vesting threshold? From what I am reading now, the average NFL career is only 3.2 years. The numbers I was given when I played in 1980 and 1981 was 2-½ years. Surely the NFLPA maintains a roster of all players who were on active rosters at one time or another.
3. What percentage of employee/players have successfully been approved for SSI? After my 3rd evaluation at Dr. Amen’s clinic January, 2012, I was given a referral to file for SSI as Dr. Amen had me rated at 100% disabled due to frontal lobe dementia and damage to my temporal lobes of my brain.
4. If a player qualifies for SSI disability, how can he be denied NFL disability? How can the NFL’s disability requirements be higher than those of the general public?
5. What percentage of employee/players have successfully been approved for Medicare?
6. How many of Tom Condon’s clients were approved for NFL benefits as opposed to the general number of players who were approved (or declined)?
7. When did NFL employee/players begin filing for Workers Compensation?
8. What percentage of NFL employee/players have been approved for Workers Compensation?

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Football damaged my brain and it didn’t have to happen

GEORGE VISGER, a former 49er, tells his story
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Due to the size and speed of today’s football players, the kinetic energy they generate during hits can have long-term consequences. Here’s my story:
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My football career began at age 11 in 1970 when I suited up for the West Stockton Bear Cubs, the first Pee Wee Pop Warner team fielded in Stockton, Calif. Of the 29 kids on the team, three went on to sign NFL contracts in 1980 (myself — sixth round, New York Jets; Jack Cosgrove — eighth round, Seattle Seahawks; Pat Bowe — free agent, Green Bay Packers).
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During my third year of Pop Warner, I was hospitalized when I knocked myself unconscious during a tackling drill. The exercise was a needless bull-in-the-ring drill that was more of a gladiator competition for the coaches’ amusement than a means of teaching useful techniques to young players.
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The coaches had us form a big circle about 25 yards across and numbered the 40 of us 1 to 20 on each side. When your number was called, you and the player on the other side with the same number sprinted directly at each other and hit head-to-head.
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Concussions followed throughout my high school career, though I never missed a game or practice. In my senior year, we went 11-0 and ranked No. 3 in California. I was selected to the All-America Top 100 Team.
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I entered the University of Colorado on a football scholarship in 1976 as a 6-foot, 5-inch 235-pound defensive tackle, majoring in biology. I was a starter for three years and suffered a number of minor concussions, but I never missed a play except after leg injuries.
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Turning pro

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EDITOR’S NOTE: George Visger caught up with me on the phone this morning just before arriving at a job site. George is back at work trying hard to help his family recover from losing their home after suffering another near-fatal brain shunt failure last October. George is one of the most remarkably intelligent and resilient guys I’ve ever met and his tenacity comes through in everything he does. I often talk to him about what might have happened with his life had he never played professional football and sustained his life-altering brain damage. He starts off with an answer to John Hogan’s earlier post (click HERE to read John Hogan’s comment).
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From TheUnion.com: George Visger, a Grass Valley resident, shows his 1981 San Francisco 49ers team photo and Super Bowl ring. Visger has undergone nine brain surgeries since he stepped off the football field for the final time.

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As many of you following this blog may already know, I developed hydrocephalus – or water on the brain – from repeated brain trauma while playing DT with the SF 49ers during the 1981 Super Bowl season. After undergoing emergency VP Shunt brain surgery during the season, I am now on brain surgery #9 thirty years later. In addition to the brain surgeries, I developed gran mal seizures and am currently on my sixth different anti-seizure medicine.
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During the course of my last 30 years dealing with hydrocephalus and other serious side effects from my short NFL “career”, I have acquired a toolbox of coping mechanisms which allow me to survive as normally as possible. Unfortunately I still don’t follow my own advice as much as I should.
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Let’s look at the side effects and potential treatments for dealing with traumatic brain injuries:
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• Short term memory loss – most of us can vividly remember events from high school, but can’t remember what we did yesterday. Get in the habit of carrying a notebook or recorder in your vehicle. Log everything you can in any way you can. Some techniques may work better than others. I have used Dictaphones with some success but I’m technologically challenged. A Write-in-the-Rain, waterproof notebook and pen work best for me. Get in the habit of reading the prior week or two’s notes every couple days. After reading the same notes 2 -3 times, your brain will begin storing information more readily..
• Anger management issues – you may think you deal with life’s daily stresses normally, but ask those around you how you function. Especially family members, friends and business relationships you trust. Many times when the wives bring these issues up, we immediately dismiss them. DON”T. If you hear the same issues being reiterated to you over and over from different people, act on it. DON’T dismiss what you are hearing as coming from people who don’t know how to “suck it up”. After a while those you are hurting the most will distance themselves from you. THINK before you speak. I have found the hard way, once words are released, you can never take them back.
• Poor judgment – damage to frontal cortex and other areas of the brain will impede your ability to use good judgment. Take extra time to think things out before acting. Sometimes that means rethinking your responses a second time a day or so later..
• Loss of direction – many of us will find ourselves having trouble finding our vehicles when we exit stores, turning the wrong way when leaving parking lots, or even having trouble remembering how to get home. Again, take time to think things out before acting. Football teaches us to react immediately to situations we find ourselves in. Unfortunately, that response doesn’t work well when you have memory deficits. It’s tough for us but slow things down..
• Financial and business problems – it is very hard to maintain a functioning business when you are dealing with all of the above symptoms. Whenever possible, be up front with business associates regarding your memory issues. I am forced to write down everything that goes on in my daily life, including each phone call. Business associates of mine are conditioned to ask “Do you have your notebook handy,” whenever they call. One thing I have learned by writing things down is no one remembers like they think they do..
• Insomnia – when you have a traumatic brain injury, many times the neurons become inflamed. When this occurs you can’t shut things off at night and your mind races when you should be sleeping. Look into taking Melatonin a couple hours before going to bed. I take 3 -4 tablets at night.

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Dave,

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