In an age where attention is rising to the long-term effects of football on a player after retirement, Joe Montana sums it up as best as anyone possibly could.
“Unfortunately, most of us leave this game with things that linger,” Montana said in a story by USA Today.
Montana, a four-time Super Bowl winner with the San Francisco 49ers, is always a big draw when the Super Bowl media frenzy gets going around the big game. With the game being played in the home stadium of the 49ers, Montana’s presence is even more noteworthy.
Montana is among the most respected of NFL legends, so his post-football health report is one that should be taken seriously. Montana described a number of health problems that have followed him into retirement, long after his final days in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs.
His hands hurt in the middle of the night. He’ll need a knee replacement at some point. Elbow surgery and nerve problems are also problems Montana lives with, all believed to be effects of playing in the NFL in the 1980s and 1990s.
“My hands have been, oh my gosh, in the middle of the night they hurt like crazy,’’ Montana said.
Then there’s the balky knee he can’t straighten despite a half-dozen surgeries.
“They kept saying I’ll need a knee replacement when I can’t walk,’’ he said. “I can’t really run or do much with it.’’
Recently, Montana said, he had elbow surgery and now he’s got problems in his neck. To date, he’s had three neck fusions.
“I think I’m headed down the fusion thing again,’’ Montana said. “… The path of a nerve they think is being affected.’’
There’s more nerve damage in one of his eyes.
“It acts like a lazy eye to some degree because every time you’re tired, it kind of goes wherever it feels like a little bit,’’ Montana said. “Not dramatic but just enough where you can’t read or you have to refocus.’’
Yikes. Montana, 59, may have been the bets quarterback of his time, if not ever, but even he took a beating against the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Chicago Bears. And if you don’t believe football can have a lasting impact on your health, take Montana’s personal anecdote as evidence that it can literally be crippling.
