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Syracuse, N.Y. – Tim Green is well known for a while.
He has been living with ALS.
A local icon, the train 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 was done to my elbows in football was the culprit, so they operated to release the nerves, but the issue persisted and my voice was weakened. 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, like many conditions, ALS has different forms. While of course, 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 is very much underfunded and together, with friends like you, we can make a huge difference with those who will have it in the future.
As always, I will spend the coming days and years counting the injuries I do not. Today I will take a walk. I will work and write and love each other. 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! Do not be sorry, let's beat this!
Steve Kroft, a Syracuse University Graduate, who has worked with Green in the past on a 1996 piece for "The Dark Side of the Game. "
Sunday's show will include audio from that 1996 piece, according to 60 Minutes, when he discussed the issue of how to play the game.
"Those dots are pretty well-connected by him," said Kroft, the 60 Minutes match.
"He says he thinks he 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," said Kroft, "you would not have known 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 get medication mailed to him.
"He has been taking this medication for a while," Kroft said, "It seems to have slowed down its symptoms."
Kroft said Green started noticing symptoms as far back as 2013 but did not 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, Keep up the good news, keep up the good times, and 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.
Numerous football players from Green's era have been diagnosed with ALS, including 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark, who died last June, and Steve Gleason. Green joins at least 16 other NFL players who have suffered from ALS.
Medical experts are attempting to determine the potential of ALS and head trauma associated with football, but there is no clear link.
"He does not have any regrets," Kroft said.
He says the NFL has made [football] If he started playing the game later, under these conditions, he would not 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 the school as 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 is moving into the television and law industries and authoring 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 as well as 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 was both of them."
Contact Nate Mink Anytime: 315-430-8253 | Email | Twitter | Facebook | Google+
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