Interesting story on Wilber Marshall

Interesting blog: NFL Former Players (http://nflretirees.blogspot.com/)

Interesting blog: NFL Former Players (http://nflretirees.blogspot.com/)
Now, that was depressing.

Joe Jacoby, a former Washington Redskins offensive lineman, was a habitue of the Skins' weight room, squat lifting his afternoons away. He dare not lift weights anymore, for fear it will accelerate the deterioration of his ankles, knees, wrists, elbows and back. Jacoby still feels the echoes of years spent snatching iron and leaning his sequoia body into snot-blowing defensive linemen who drove shuddering forces down his spine and onto his lower joints.

At 6'7", 305 pounds, Jacoby was a giant among the Hogs, a 13-year veteran who retired in 1993, the year he collapsed in his bathroom at home and could not get up. "My lower back went out," he says. "I dropped to my knees on the floor. The pain was that sharp. I crawled out of the bathroom to the bed." Like Stanfill, imbued with the ethic to play in pain, Jacoby played again later that year. Then, against the Kansas City Chiefs, his back went out again. He ended up spending three days in a hospital.

"I never wanted to go out that way," says Jacoby, 41. "I wanted to keep playing, even though I was hurting. I felt like I was letting down the team. You've been brought up that way since high school. It's ingrained in you. I had a wife. I had a family. A business I was starting. But I kept hearing those little things in the back of my mind: You're letting your team down." He was in traction, shot up with cortisone, when the thought finally struck him: I can't keep doing this. I have a life to live after this.

Jacoby had blown out his left knee earlier in his career, when his leg got wrenched in a pileup during a field goal attempt. "The kneecap was way over on the side of the knee," he recalls. "I still hear the crunching and popping." Another old wound -- vintage for linemen, who are forever getting their fingers caught and dislocated in face masks and shoulder pads -- is the busted knuckle on Jacoby's wedding-band finger, as gnarled as a tree root. He has won many wagers in bars, claiming he can get the ring over that knuckle. His wife, Irene, had the band made with a clasp, so he can take it off like a bracelet.

Jacoby owns an auto dealership in Warrenton, Va. He and Irene had the sinks in the kitchen and master bathroom of their house installed higher than normal, "so he doesn't have to bend down," she says. He often walks about sockless in loafers. "It's too painful for him to bend over and put on socks or lace up shoes," Irene says.

Jacoby walks stiffly on his damaged ankles, but he endures the discomforts with stoic grace. He still remembers vividly the pounding he took year after year, through 170 games, including four Super Bowls--a career that left him unable to do any exercise other than walking. "Some days the back gets unbearable," he says. "It's really deep in the lower back and goes down to my left buttock and hamstring. Sometimes it gets so bad it hurts my nuts. There's pain down my left leg now. My left foot has been numb for two months. The bone's pressing on the nerve. Too many years of abuse, using the back to block."

Like so many other hobbled former players, Jacoby says he would do it all again if he had the chance. He knew what he was getting into. "Football players know the risk and the consequences," he says. "They know they will pay for it later in life. If they don't, they are misleading themselves."

That article was published in '01. I see Jacoby a lot, and around 00, he hit his worst. He looked awful. Since then, he has gotten a lot better. He has put on weight (healthy), has the color back in his face, and seems to getting around much better than he was.

Man that jacoby article paints a vivid picture of life as a 300+ lb. ex nfl lineman. What a tough SOB. Hats off to you sir. I wish players were that tough today.

This is a very tough issue and one that has changed a lot since the advent of unrestricted free agency.

I remember writing a paper in college in support of the players strike in 87 w/my main point being that nfl players had no choice of where they work & then often played in pain & suffered lifelong injuries. The one major thing that's changed is that players now have choices & as a result of free agency, have also increased their salaries tremendously.

I don't know what the nfl can realistically do to assist ALL players. The ideal solution would be for the nflpa to step up & the 2 parties agree to include some form of long-term medical insurance provisions in all contracts, which would decrease take home pay. I certainly don't think it's as simple as the NFL taking responsibility for all players beyond their playing years. If a doctor advises a player not to play again, yet the player comes back to play & is re-injured, whose fault is it really?

Its shocking to see how many physical giants are destroyed after years of football. Why I wonder? More NFL than any other sport......

Wow reading that really bums me out. #58 was one of my favorite players growing up. He was a monster on the field and our defensive leader. Marshall was the captain of our "Capital punishment" D. I wish him the best.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w316/redskins5605/8.jpg

Its shocking to see how many physical giants are destroyed after years of football. Why I wonder? More NFL than any other sport......

It's just such a pounding sport...I once read somewhere that the energy delivered when the linemen crash each other on a play is the equivalent of a 30 mph car wreck...then you have the excess weight that a lot of these guys carry, Mark Schlereth said the first thing he did when he retired was start a weight loss regimen (I think he lost 70 lbs.) to lighten up the load on his legs because he knew he was going to be hobbling around and he did want to make a bad situation worse. I don't blame guys like Robert Smith and Tiki Barber for retiring when they did...at least they will still have a body left when they hit 50....

And the NFL wonders why a lot of great young athletes are going into basketball and baseball. I remember when I played High School football I had three coaches that played pro ball. One played for the Broncos in the 80's (yes during the Denver-Washington Super Bowl match up), another played for the Packers during the 70's, and a third played for the Saints back in the 70's. All three were backups, all three were in the league for around four years, and all three walk around today with noticable limps. Football is a brutal sport, and for anyone that retires early with their body intact they have my respect.