When I was a kid in the 1980's I was a huuuuuge football fan. It was like - I LIVED the Dolphins. They won - I was ecstatic. They lost - I was despondent. Forlorn [two lorn plus two lorn]. Pretty pathetic, huh??
The arch enemies of the Fins were the NY Jets and their famed "Sack Exchange". What are the consequences of being part of a "NY Sack Exchange" in the incredibly brutal, vicious, violent world of football?
Brain damage and many many other ailments. Here is the latest:
They were together two Saturdays ago for an autograph show at a Long Island shopping mall, seated in the same order they lined up 35 years ago: Mark Gastineau and Joe Klecko on the outside, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam on the inside. They were the New York Sack Exchange, the scourge of quarterbacks in the early 1980s.
On this day, Salaam was the sympathetic figure. Stricken with diabetes, he was relegated to a wheelchair. His condition doesn't allow him to fly, so he traveled by train from Cincinnati to attend the signing. The men at the table had no idea their former teammate on the right flank -- Gastineau -- was battling the most significant health crisis of them all, an unseen killer.
Gastineau revealed Thursday night in a radio interview he was diagnosed a year ago with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, which he believes were caused by head trauma from football. His former New York Jets teammates were blown away by the news.
"The first thing was, 'Oh my God, it can't be real,'" Lyons said Friday in a phone interview. "But it is. It just saddens you that a guy you played with is in that type of shape."
"It is sobering," Klecko said. "It's a very big slap in the face to understand, 'Whoa, this is a guy that stood next to me for a long time and now he's got it.'"
Gastineau was one of the NFL's highest-paid and most flamboyant players in the 1980s. He drove a Rolls-Royce, partied with celebrities and made the gossip pages with his engagement to actress Brigitte Nielsen. He sacked quarterbacks and danced over their fallen bodies -- polarizing fans, opposing players, even his own teammates. He was larger than life, and now his life is threatened by insidious brain diseases.
Klecko was stung by the news because he was a good friend of the late Mike Webster, the former Steelers great whose tragic story was captured in the movie "Concussion."
"I was dumbfounded after watching that movie, but this is something that hits close to home because I just saw Mark and I've been with him for the last 30, 35 years in football situations and social settings," Klecko said. "It's a very, very sobering and surreal thing to hear this has happened to him because I know a lot about it. It's real tough. It's surreal, it really is."
The Sack Exchange, whose dominance defined the Jets in the post-Namath era, was comprised of diverse personalities. Except for Lyons and Klecko, the four men aren't particularly close, but they share an unbreakable bond that transcends whatever petty disputes they may have had as players. They're 60 years old now, and they genuinely care about one another.
"There are more people that care about Mark than Mark realizes," Lyons said. "He could've reached out to his teammates. He could've said, 'These are the complications that I'm having, how can you help? What do you think?' We're all going to be there for him. All he has to do is reach out.
"It's really sad. He was a heck of a football player -- so much God-given ability -- and he's turned his life around. To be dealt this ..."
Lyons called Klecko as soon as he heard the news. As Lyons said, "We were both floored." Lyons left Gastineau a voice message Thursday night. No call back. He tried to leave another message Friday morning, but the mailbox was full. So he texted.
No response.
Gastineau lives a quiet life. He's married, lives in Central New Jersey and spends a lot of time at the Times Square Church in Manhattan. He found religion after football and, from all accounts, he's not the same man he was as a "look-at-me" player. Friends say he's humbled.
Recalling his fast times as an NFL star, Gastineau told ESPN.com in 2015, "I was in my Rolls-Royce, riding down Meadowbrook Parkway. I had to have a Rolls-Royce because when you make $65,000 a week, everybody has to have a Rolls-Royce, right? I was making big money, but I found myself totally empty. I was lonely for much of my time in the NFL."
His old linemates hope he finds peace. They want to help him.
There's another layer to this story: The debilitating effects of playing football. Gastineau's plight is another frightening reminder of what's happening to players of his era. Their bodies and minds are breaking down, in part, because the NFL refused to acknowledge the severity of concussions.
Klecko considers himself to be in good physical shape, yet he acknowledged he has had 10 operations (shoulders, back and knees) and still needs a knee replacement. He has no regrets and no animosity toward the league. If it weren't for football, he said, he would've been a truck driver. But he has strong emotions about this subject.
"To be angry, no," he said. "The only thing you're taken aback by is how much they covered it up. I believe it has nothing to do with me and it has nothing to do with the players. I know people are harmed from it now, but there's nothing we can do about it.
"What's sobering is the gentlemen who made these decisions have filled their coffers. All they need to do is help out these guys that need help. They don't want to set a precedent, so they don't do it. It's all about dollars. That's something they have to deal with when they stand in front of the Lord and say, 'This is what I did." Was it really worth the millions of dollars that you made?"
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This is a scandal! Tens of millions of Americans cheer on people giving each other brain damage and otherwise destroying each others bodies [how many ex football players live pain free? Probably next to none].
Why is nothing being done?
We all know the an$wer. The fans enjoy it and entertaiment is the highest value. And the players, team staff and TV companies etc. etc. etc. make loads of money. Billions are flying around. So who cares about the brain damage it causes. Right?
This is not a culture I want to be a part of.
What about you??
