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Sad news about Nick Buoniconti and Jim Kiick's health

uk_dolfan

uk_dolfan

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This is a really sad story from MMQB :( its a complicated and sensitive topic so I am going to post the entire intro paragraph here (its longer than ideal but for a topic like this? im going to make an exception)

You can read the full story at http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/05/08/jay-cutler-tv-nfl-quarterbacks-offseason-draft-peter-king

The follow up story should be out later this week


This week in Sports Illustrated, the magazine is running a story that will really move you, and I wanted to bring you a taste of that story here; The MMQB will run it in its entirety on Tuesday, plus a sort of spinoff tale on Wednesday. You’ve read before about the cracks in the NFL veneer, the old vets, so many of them in a bad state. But what writer Scott Price found is a really punishing story about the man at the heart of the defense for the revered, undefeated 1972 Dolphins. Nick Buoniconti is now 76, and his body is just completely falling apart, to the point where something like putting on a T-shirt is not just complicated—it’s near impossible. Nick and his wife, Lynn, shared a video with The MMQB, and you can take a look below at just where this old Hall of Famer is today. Here’s what’s different: This story isn’t Nick Buoniconti has CTE. We’re not at that point yet with the science. This is, Nick Buoniconti’s doctors know something is really wrong with his brain…but no one can tell him anything definitively, and that’s a terrifying place for anyone. What’s even scarier: Nick brought that story to SI, and when Scott started looking around that revered team he found more of the same. We’ll get to Jim Kiick (the running back who scored every rushing touchdown for Miami in that ’72 postseason) on Wednesday, but first here’s an excerpt of the Buoniconti story, which we’ll give you in full at The MMQB on Tuesday.
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You can watch the video his family sent here - https://www.si.com/nfl/video/2017/05/07/nick-buoniconti-tshirt-video

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You can read the full Nick Buoniconti story here - http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/05/08/...cognitive-decline-nfl-head-trauma-concussions






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UPDATE: Here is the Jim Kiick story :(

How Jim Kiick Fell Through the Cracks

The devastation the former Dolphin’s family feels as it watches his gut-wrenching decline is matched by the frustration and confusion they’ve experienced in trying to get him the care he needs

This is the second of two stories on former members of the ’70s Dolphins Super Bowl teams who are confronting the cognitive and physical effects of a life in football. Read Scott Price’s story on Nick Buoniconti here.

If this were the typical comeback tale, Allie Kiick’s plague years would be all behind her. She’s been hitting tennis balls for a month now, and this spring she’s scheduled to play her first pro tournament since 2015. Given a few wins, a few painless months, the 21-year old South Florida native could then speak of her career-devastating ailments in the past tense, and the usual narrative would take hold. As in, she “overcame” mononucleosis and two surgeries on each knee, and “beat” stage I melanoma. As in, that chapter is done.



But it’s not. Because Kiick, who reached a career-high WTA ranking of 136 in 2014, hasn’t spent the ensuing years contending solely with her own medical issues. She has also had to withstand the mental demise of her father, former Miami Dolphins halfback Jim Kiick, 70, who after years of erratic behavior and squalid living was placed in a South Florida assisted living facility in July 2016. And that experience hardly lends itself to tidy closure.


“It’s been devastating,” Allie says. “When I do something great—which, back in the day, he’d be just so proud about—I don’t even bother calling after. And when I do call to check up on him, he calls me—I kid you not—probably 30, 40 times after if I don’t pick up the phone. He just keeps calling and calling and calling, to the point where, at night, I actually have to block him from my phone because he’ll call at 3 in the morning. He just doesn’t know any better.

“When people ask how is he doing—because of the NFL [concussion] lawsuit—I just say, ‘He’s fine.’ But I tell my close friends, ‘I lost my dad at 21 years old.’ I love him to death, and I’m so proud of him and everything he’s accomplished—and I just wanted him to be really proud of me, too. But he just won’t ever understand, I guess.”
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alli-jim-austin-kiick.jpg

Photo: Courtesy of Allie Kiick
Allie, Jim and Austin Kiick.
 
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I read this late last night after Peter king published it and it was so sad I didn't even want to post it. These are the realities of this modern game of gladiators. It amazes me that despite these consequences of the playing this sport that the NFL commissioner still refuses to do away with such things like Thursday night games which further puts players at risk due to lack of recovery time and refuses to look into alternatives medicines and solutions like that of medical marijuana.
 
I have studied this topic (Concussions & Football) and wrote a paper on it. Sparing all of you the scientific knowledge, concussions are a very serious issue and it is awful what they have to go through
 
Sad to see a great Dolphin suffering. I hope that Commissioner Goodell takes the time to watch the video. Nick Buoniconti and some other former players probably contracted the disease from the massive hits playing NFL.
Sometimes it's about quality of life rather than quantity.
 
Really sad especially for those of us like myself who grew up with this team and got to know the players well after they finished playing because of the undefeated season.

Nick was one of the all time greats that has kept the memories together for so long.

It's a sport and a huge business that carries a lot of risk. Most players would do it all again if they could and we've come a long way with safety but there is always more.

All my thoughts are with him and his family.


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Sad to see Nick struggling. Interested in reading more on Kiick. On the NFL Networks 'A Perfect Backfield' a few years ago, it looked like he was starting to have issues.
 
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Our hearts go out to the Buoniconti family. You are in our prayers.
 
Goin` Deep said:
Sad to see Nick struggling. Interested in reading more on Kiick. On the NFL Networks 'A Perfect Backfield' a few years ago, it looked like he was starting to have issues.
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Had the same reaction when watching The Perfect Backfield. And yet, Larry Csonka, who led with his head as much as any football player in history, seems fine. We might be looking at a condition like emphysema, where your chances for having issues if you're a smoker goes up dramatically, but it's still not the same thing as saying that having your head chopped off, for example, leads to death.
 
I read an article about 20 years ago about the undefeated team and how almost all of them have hip issues from the cortisone they took back then. The sad thing for me is how so many of those players have cheated time up till now. I'm afraid most of the news going forward about that crew will be bad :-(
 
While I sympathize with Buoniconti, neurodegenerative conditions affect many people who never played contact sports or suffered head trauma. He's 76 yrs old. My mother died at that age from advanced Parkinson's disease and she was was far worse off than Buoniconti at a younger age.
Same for Alzheimer's, ALS, Polymyositis etc.
Everyone assumes it's always related to playing football, yet there are many ex NFL players who don't suffer from these conditions. Ted Hendricks appears to be one of them.
 
jlfin said:
While I sympathize with Buoniconti, neurodegenerative conditions affect many people who never played contact sports or suffered head trauma. He's 76 yrs old. My mother died at that age from advanced Parkinson's disease and she was was far worse off than Buoniconti at a younger age.
Same for Alzheimer's, ALS, Polymyositis etc.
Everyone assumes it's always related to playing football, yet there are many ex NFL players who don't suffer from these conditions. Ted Hendricks appears to be one of them.
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Good point. The real question you want to ask is "are neurodegenerative conditions overrepresented in ex-NFL players compared to the entire population." You'd want to control for certain things like age and sex. I don't think there is a definitive answer to that yet (not large enough sample size yet for NFL players?), but my hypothesis would be, yes it is.
 
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