Montana details damage from NFL career

[the Talking Can]

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

[PAChiefsGuy]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

I'm not mad at Joe.

Oh okay.

But back to your original post, I really don't have much compassion for NFL players because of what you mentioned. It is what it is. Unless they are complete morons they knew what they were getting into.

[Red Dawg]

Just do drugs and feel good. Gronk will not be able walk when he retires with getting blasted in his knees year after year. The millions these guys have will soothe a lot of pain.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

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.

This is pretty much where I'm at. I have quite a few of the same issues from 20 years of painting. Bad knee, neck, shoulder, back, and I have no strength in my arms once my hands are higher than my shoulders. Sucks for all of us.

[R Clark]

Originally Posted by Baconeater

This is pretty much where I'm at. I have quite a few of the same issues from 20 years of painting. Bad knee, neck, shoulder, back, and I have no strength in my arms once my hands are higher than my shoulders. Sucks for all of us.

Rotator cuff mabey?

[ROYC75]

I feel for him as I have most of the same issues. It's not so much the career he chose that lead to these issues. Just about anybody over the age of 50 is going to experience many of these same health issues.

I envy the adults my age that still have "good " health. So many things I want to do, I just can't because of my health issues.

Iowanian hit it on the head, after 35, all down hill! Prior to 35 I was 10' tall and bullet proof, then somebody hit me with a bomb!

[ROYC75]

Originally Posted by Baconeater

This is pretty much where I'm at. I have quite a few of the same issues from 20 years of painting. Bad knee, neck, shoulder, back, and I have no strength in my arms once my hands are higher than my shoulders. Sucks for all of us.

Rotator cuff injury, I have 2 of them, painful as hell when you are active and use them often.

[BucEyedPea]

I am getting tired of former millionaire athletes whining about their health issues from playing football. It's not like others, as we see in this thread, that don't have them. But others have them, and even worse conditions without having played the sport —especially as they get older. I had migraines since age 15 for no reason at all.

They made a choice. It's maturity to live with the consequences of them.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by R Clark

Rotator cuff mabey?

Originally Posted by ROYC75

Rotator cuff injury, I have 2 of them, painful as hell when you are active and use them often.

Very possible, I haven't looked into it too much since it's rarely an issue in my current line of work. But those last few years I was painting I was having a hell of a time getting the ladders on to the roof of the van. Not really painful though, just no strength.

[Easy 6]

Still love ya, Joe... but I dont care.

Football has provided him with a lifestyle that few will ever enjoy, and enough money to scour the globe for all of the latest treatments for his problems.

[bricks]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

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.

Seriously? You can't be serious about this

Yeah lets go Get a job instead that pays waaaaaay less compared to being an NFL player that (if very good) has the potential to make millions or (if not very good but at least can get to the NFL) will make minimum hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Even though this person has the skills and talent to reach the NFL level but nahhh **** that let's go work a JOB, a 9-5er where he could get paid less....haha yeah right.....Point is, The guy who has the potential to make the NFL and millions but decides to pass up on that opportunity to work a 9-5 would have to be imo one of the dumbest mother****ers on the planet.

*I understand that any profession, career or job that revolves around any sort of physicality will put a person at great risk of experience some sort of physical ailment like tendonitis, arthritis, bad back, knees, etc. But NFL players have it worse than those carpenters, farmers, iron workers or whomever. It's just you can't put them in the same category as these people. No way. The constant collison and impact these guys go through, the poundage makes their physical ailments way worse. The severity of it is just brutal.

At least most carpenters, plumbers and farmers could walk by the time they reach their 60s whereas some retired NFL players struggle with walking and have to deal with brain conditions on top. But yeah I'm with you in that I don't feel sorry for them either.

[Chiefaholic]

I love Joe to death as he's my 2nd favorite former Chief QB. However, Joe like many other former players KNEW there would be consequences to getting pounded time and time again. If they claim "they didn't know", then they're the most ignorant college graduates in history. They knew they had an opportunity to be financially set to live an INCREDIBLE life in exchange for sacrificing possible health issues. I'd do it in half a heartbeat if i had their God given skills.

I on the other hand, wake up well before daylight (4 AM) and bust my ass as a welder 40-50 hours a week. I don't have the luxury of retiring in my twenties or thirties with many years to enjoy life in my prime. At the ripe old age of 44 (sarcasm), I've already sacrificed my left hip, lower back (disk degeneration), and multiple cuts, burns, broken fingers, and sprains. I still have 20+ years till retirement and obviously more problems to come. Do I complain about it, NO.... I chose my occupation and I'm the person who will pay the piper down the road. I don't get to sue my former employer for millions when I finally get to relax. I know there's multiple health risks that come with my occupation including respiratory problems and cancer. I took that risk for a better life for my family.

The primary difference between their profession and mine, they get to retire a hell of a lot younger and their family is set for life. Athletes need to quit complaining about something they KNEW was going to happen.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

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.

Exactly.

My dad looked healthy as shit at 50 but couldnt run 10 feet because of climbing ladders his whole life.

Anybody who says they wouldnt be an NFL player because of the damage to your body is a pussy.

Id trade 75 years of boring ass normal life for 50 years of 15 year NFL vet 1000 times out of 1000.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by Tuckdaddy

Just do drugs and feel good. Gronk will not be able walk when he retires with getting blasted in his knees year after year. The millions these guys have will soothe a lot of pain.

Is it? Sounds like all the surgeries he's had hasn't helped him as he's still having issues.
Some of it is just being reeruned. Andrew Luck running around willingly taking hits instead of sliding is going to come back and haunt him later in life.

I'm wondering how much of this has to do with diet? Guys like Tony Gonzalez and Tom Brady take care of their bodies with their diet.
I can't help but think that some of these guys like Allen Bailey who eat a ton of red meat to get bigger won't have internal issues later on.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by R Clark

Rotator cuff mabey?

Badgirl?

[Rasputin]

It seems to me things that start out fun in life turn out to be really risky and harmful to a person like drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, jacking off with shampoo in the shower, playing football for a career these are all fun and dandy but have serious consequences.