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Ex-Giant Leonard Marshall is chasing help for hurting former players.
Leonard Marshall has tasted Super Bowl glory — he was a key contributor on the Giants teams that won NFL titles after the 1986 and 1990 seasons — but he thinks it is important for fans to know that retired players don’t have an easy time after they limp away from the game.
“We are celebrating the greatest game on Earth here in the New York-New Jersey metro area this week,” said Marshall, who was diagnosed last year with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease that may have led to the suicide deaths of Junior Seau and Dave Duerson. “But the people who enjoyed watching us play need to understand what the game has done to us.”
Two organizations dedicated to assisting NFL retirees who suffer from CTE and other debilitating injuries are hosting events this week to raise money to assist former players and raise awareness of their plight.
Pain Alternatives, Solutions and Treatment (PAST), the New Jersey medical group that provides care to destitute NFL players, is hosting a dinner on Wednesday at The Brownstone in Paterson.
Former Kansas City Chiefs running back Christian Okoye and Green Bay Packers great Dave Robinson will be among the players who will talk about the care players who suffer from CTE, chronic pain and other ailments have received through PAST.
Ex-NFL coach Dick Vermeil will also be on hand to talk about his former player, Terry Tautolo, who has struggled with addiction and homelessness as a result of his football injuries.
“PAST saved my life,” says former Jets quarterback Ray Lucas, the event’s master of ceremonies, whose struggle with painkiller addiction and depression was chronicled by the Daily News. “When I look at where I was, and how many painkillers I was taking, it’s crazy. The fact that I’m still here is a testament to what PAST has been able to do.”
Marshall, too, has high praise for PAST — he began receiving care last year from the group, which was founded in 2009. But he won’t attend the PAST dinner because he is focusing on his own event, the Big Cheese Cheerleader Search and Big Game Extravaganza on Thursday at Tiff’s Casual Grill and Bar in South Pequannock, N.J.
Proceeds from the event will benefit Marshall’s organization, the Game Plan Foundation, which provides support for former players who suffer from brain trauma.
Players with CTE suffer from a wide variety of health problems, including dementia, memory loss, headaches and depression, and Marshall said the disease destroys families as much as it does players.
“It is very scary to live with CTE,” said Marshall, who told the Daily News in 2013 that CTE led to his divorce and damaged his relationship with his daughter. “You wake up some days and have a great day. You wake up some days and you have a very bad day.”
Marshall is one of the nearly 5,000 former players who sued the NFL over head trauma, but he says he’s glad a federal judge rejected a proposed $ 765 million settlement earlier this month.
Marshall says the lawyers got too much money while the players got too little. He believes the players weren’t adequately informed about the settlement negotiations until it was too late.
“Something stinks,” Marshall said. “I smell a big rat. Let’s do this with more transparency. Let’s do it with integrity.”
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