Montana details damage from NFL career
 

In an interview with USA Today Sports, the four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback detailed the ailments he continues to deal with after leaving football following the 1994 season.

They include:

-- Arthritis. Montana told USA Today Sports of the inflammation in his hands: "In the middle of the night they hurt like crazy." He also has arthritis in one elbow and both his knees.

-- A balky knee. Montana can't straighten his knee despite, according to USA Today Sports, having a half-dozen surgeries on it. He said he can't run much anymore and has been told he'll "need a knee replacement when I can't walk."

-- A bad neck. Montana said he has already had three neck fusions and a fourth very well could be on the way. "The path of a nerve they think is being affected," he told USA Today Sports.

-- A troublesome eye: Nerve damage has left Montana with what he labeled a "lazy eye to some degree because every time you're tired, it kind of goes wherever it feels like a little bit." He added to USA Today Sports: "Not dramatic but just enough where you can't read or you have to refocus.

The constant physical woes are an everyday reminder of his 15-year playing career, 13 of which were with the San Francisco 49ers. He's back in the city this week as Levi's Stadium prepares to host Super Bowl 50 in nearby Santa Clara.

Montana will handle the coin toss before the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers vie for an NFL championship Sunday night.

"The mental part was hard initially when I first retired. Because it's quick -- cold turkey, the game's gone," Montana told USA Today Sports, recalling the years since he retired. "Then the physical stuff tries to catch up with you."

And when it does, it keeps Montana from doing some of the things he loves, including physical outings with his wife and three kids.

"My whole family likes to live on the edge, so some of the things I regret that I can't do with them," Montana told USA Today Sports. "Like snowboarding. I fell like 50 times within 30 yards off the top of the ski lift. ... I love basketball. I can't play basketball. I can shoot, but that's about it. I can't run up and down the court. My knee just gives out.

"I tried a little bit of skiing, but unfortunately when you get weight on one ski under my left knee, it's just not very strong. After my first back surgery, what kind of compounds things, is my sciatic nerve has been damaged. So the muscles along my sciatic nerve into my left foot have been numb since '86."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14...-post-nfl-life

If you're Peyton manning, multiply this by 10...have fun in retirement

'Nfl career'

****ing autocorrect

What's the requirement for having a "not career" even if you were working?

I'm sure he can get naked with Jennifer and take a treasure bath, and it'll all feel better.

LMAO

English Mother-..............

;)

Non career? Isn't that what Blackledge had?

My position is the same.

These guys take a beating and their bodies pay the price. True.


When I was 15 and acting like a wild man, my dad said "boy make good choices, you're going to pay for this crap someday". Bad ideas, car wrecks, sports and injuries pile up, but you heal fast. Then you turn 35.

The thing is, as bad as a person can feel for nfl players for the toll on their body, they've made enough money to afford good health care, surgeries and medications.


Now....go ask any 55-60 year old carpenter, iron worker, farmer....how many of them can play basketball or snow board. A lot of careers cause people to accumulate damage and injury...and arthritis and tendinitis and bad backs and knees.

Not feeling sorry for NFL millionaires. College football gave them a chance at an education, they had the choice to go get a job instead.

I'm not sad for Montana or any other super star that got to play a sport for a living and make multi millions.

I've had back surgery do to work and have other ailments that I have to live with but I still go to work and won't be able to retire for another 25 years or so. I got to go through the grind every day and will be an old crippled man when it's all said and done. Most of us have to live with ailments at some sorts it's part of life. If you chose a job "career" that has 300lbs men laying on top of you humping your leg you may just have future body aches.

Yeah, I can list at least that many injuries at 48 and my last down of football was played in high-school. It's called getting old after a life where you went at it hard. And I don't have several million dollars to rub on my injuries to make them feel better.

If my kid was athletically gifted I would want to steer them towards baseball or hockey. Maybe even tennis is the are really gifted.

That sucks but lets not get mad at Joe for this interview. Not once did he say he regrets playing football, claim he wouldn't do it again or say he is going to sue the NFL. He's simply telling the interviewer the injuries that still linger. There's nothing wrong with that.

I'm not mad at Joe.

You think with all the money he has, he'd endorse better pizza...

Montania had one helluva not career :)