Syracuse, N.Y. -- Tim Green is ready to tell the world what only his family and closest friends have known for a while.
He has been living with ALS.
A local icon, the former Syracuse University football All-American, NFL player and commentator whose life's work stretched far beyond the football field will appear on CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday confirming his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, and strongly suggesting football is at the heart of his diagnosis.
Green revealed the news in a Facebook post Wednesday night.
It's okay when life's a struggle...
While the football field is far away, I find myself in a formidable struggle.
For the past five years I've been coping with some neurological problems in my hands. At first the doctors thought the damage I'd done to my elbows in football was the culprit, so they operated to release the nerves, but the issue persisted and my voice began to weaken as well. That's the only reason I've had to stop visiting schools to talk with kids. Finally, I was diagnosed with ALS. That's the bad news.
Now the good news: Like many conditions, ALS has different forms. While of course I'd rather not have it at all, I am extremely grateful that mine is a slow-progressing version of the disease.
I am also blessed to have Dr. Merit Cudkowicz at Mass General Hospital as my doctor. She is one of the top ALS specialists in the world, but ALS research is grossly underfunded and together, with friends like you, we can make a huge difference to those with the disease and those who will have it in the future.
As always, I will spend the coming days and years counting the blessings I have instead of pining for the things I don't. Today I will take a walk. I will work and write and kiss each of my kids as well as my beautiful wife. That's a great day. As good as it gets...
For the complete story, tune in this Sunday, 11/18, at 7pm to watch 60 Minutes. Please share this post to help raise awareness and learn about the fundraiser I am doing to help Tackle ALS in the episode! On Sunday the fundraiser will go live! Don't be sorry, let's beat this!
Green and his family were interviewed last month at his Skaneateles home by Steve Kroft, a Syracuse University graduate who had worked with Green in the past on a 1996 piece for 60 Minutes around the release of his best-selling book, "The Dark Side of the Game."
Sunday's show will include video footage from that 1996 piece, according to 60 Minutes, when he discussed the occupational hazards of football and how he loved the game too much to quit playing, even as he suspected it might take decades off his life.
"Those dots are pretty well-connected by him," said Kroft, the 60 Minutes correspondent.
"He says he thinks it has a lot to do with him getting ALS and maybe everything to do with him getting ALS."
The disease has started to impact Green's voice, Kroft said. Green can walk, but his motor skills are not 100 percent.
"If you saw him on the street standing there," Kroft said, "you would not know there was anything wrong with him."
Kroft and other 60 Minutes reps took a trip to see Green in September to gauge Green's condition. He said they returned Oct. 22-23 for the interview with Green, his wife and children in his Skaneateles home. Crew members also filmed Green coaching his youngest son's youth football team, driving a boat on the lake, getting an IV drip during treatment and Skyping with Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, one of the leading experts in ALS treatment who is consulting Green.
Kroft said Green travels on occasion to Massachusetts General Hospital to meet with Cudkowicz and gets medication mailed to him.
"He has been taking this medication for a while," Kroft said, "It seems to have slowed down his symptoms."
Kroft said Green started noticing symptoms as far back as 2013 but didn't know it was ALS, a neurodegenerative medical issue that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, weakening muscles over time and impacting the body's ability to function.
Green initially did not want treatment, Kroft said, before relenting to the family's desire. Until now, Green kept his condition private, urging family and close friends to keep quiet, not wanting any sympathy.
A year ago, his symptoms worsened.
"He started to realize," Kroft said, "I'm not going to be able to keep this secret forever."
Green and his family have started a non-profit called Tackle ALS. Kroft and 60 Minutes covered a meeting at the New York Athletic Club about the fundraiser about two weeks ago, he said.
The cause of ALS is not known. Most of the more than 5,000 cases diagnosed each year are sporadic, according to the ALS Association. There is no cure.
Other football players from Green's era have been diagnosed with ALS, including former 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark, who died last June, and Steve Gleason. Green joins at least 16 other former NFL players who have suffered from ALS.
Medical experts are attempting to determine potential ties between ALS and head trauma associated with football, but there is no clear link.
"He doesn't have any regrets," Kroft said.
"He says the NFL has made [football] a lot safer and that he thinks if he started playing the game later, under these new conditions, he wouldn't be fighting for his life."
Green was a football and wrestling star at Liverpool High School before playing football at Syracuse University from 1982-85 and graduating summa cum laude and leaving as the school's all-time leader in sacks with 45.5. He helped lay the foundation for the football program's renaissance under Hall of Fame coach Dick MacPherson.
The two-time All-American was drafted in the first round of the 1986 NFL Draft, crossed the picket line during the NFL players' strike the next year and played eight seasons for the Atlanta Falcons before being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
Green, who turns 55 in December, lives with his wife, Illyssa, in Skaneateles and has five children: Thane, Tessa, Troy, Tate and Ty.
The breadth of his life, to be sure, extends far beyond the football field. He transitioned into the television and law industries and authored dozens of books, writing about the dark side of football and his search for his biological mother. He became beloved for his advocacy of childhood reading as much as he was for ripping through offensive linemen in a brutal sport.
Kroft said Green told him: "I've had a great life. I had two dreams: one to make it to the NFL and two to become a best-selling author.
"I did both of them."
Contact Nate Mink anytime: 315-430-8253 |
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