Critique Super Bowl Media Day Tedy Bruschi article, por favor

Hello:
Please critique my 2008 Super Bowl XLII Media Day article below. It was of Tedy Bruschi and his stroke suffered in 2005. Keep in mind that it was my first Super Bowl Media Day interview of any player in my career, so there's some imperfections, no doubt. I've written a short column back in 2004 on the Arizona Cardinals, but that was a piece of cake. This one was much more challenging, and at the time, I was afraid I'd screw up on such a medical topic such as Bruschi's. But my Sports Editor helped me make sure everything was factual, so it went well.
I wrote it as a Sports Reporter for The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review, from Sierra Vista, Arizona, located about an hour south of Tucson.
Thanks for your time,
Bruce Bourquin


Bruschi a model for stroke victims
Former Wildcat shares his story

BY BRUCE BOURQUIN
HERALD/REVIEW
GLENDALE — The face of the New England Patriots’ defense throughout their
21st Century dominance is also the face of University of Arizona football. Heading
to his fourth Super Bowl in seven years, Tedy Bruschi is hoping to represent another
cause — stroke victims. Weeks after the Patriots defeated Philadelphia
in the 2005 Super Bowl, Bruschi was hospitalized and diagnosed with Patent
Foramen Ovale, a congenital heart defect.
“I don’t think I seriously started thinking about football until my vision actually returned, like two or three months later. Because if there’s one thing that I
knew that would prevent me from playing football, if I couldn’t see to my left,
I’d get killed out there,” Bruschi said at Tuesday’s Media Day. “Because the deficiencies on my left arm or my left leg, I could rehabilitate ... but how do you rehab
an eye? You really just hope it comes back and for a lot of people it doesn’t, but I’m
one of the lucky ones.”
On Feb. 16, 2005, Bruschi was taken to a hospital after he suffered a mild stroke.
The 1996 UA grad suffered partial paralysis on the left side of his body. After several
months of rehabilitation in Boston, he announced he’d sit out the 2005 season.
Bruschi performed a few tests with some medical professionals,
and he had some mixed results in front of both them and his wife, then known as
Heidi Bomberger, played for both the University of Arizona women’s volleyball team.
Before that she attended Sahuaro High School in Tucson.
“They had these white lights on a globe that lit up and you pushed a button if
you could see them,” Bruschi said. “You push a button and I thought, ‘Hey, I’m doing
great.’ Little did I know later on when I asked my wife how I did, she was just
shaking her head.”
However, on Oct. 16 of that year, Bruschi was medically cleared to resume playing
football. New England activated
him to play on Oct. 29,
and he played the next night
against the Buffalo Bills.
For his efforts in an amazing
comeback, Bruschi was
named co-Comeback Player
of the Year along with Panthers’
receiver Steve Smith.
He also wrote a book titled
“Never Give Up: My Stroke,
My Recovery, and My Return
to the NFL.”
Bruschi has spoken with
several stroke patients during
the past three years. Doctors
and patients have used
his story as an inspiration.
“I think the one message
that I’ve said, not by saying
it, but by being here and doing
what I do, is that if I can
have a stroke and come back
to play professional football,
you can come back to do
whatever it is you want to
do,” Bruschi said. “Because
who could think someone
could play professional football
after having a stroke
and go back and wrestle
with 300-pound men and
put a helmet on and bang it
around?”
According to the Web site
www.revolutionhealth.com,
about 160,000 people are
killed each year by having a
stroke, although a vast majority
of people survive. It’s
the third-leading cause of
death in the United States,
and it strikes approximately
700,000 people each year,
about once every 45 seconds.
Nearly 75 percent of strokes
happen to people who are
older than 65.
“It is O.K., you can experience
a full recovery. The other
thing that I’ve learned is
sometimes when in you’re in
recovery you think, ‘Something’s
wrong with you.’ You
think to yourself, ‘Why does
this happen?’ One night you
go to sleep and everything’s
fine. Then you wake up, and
one day your life’s changed
forever. There’s nothing
wrong with you, it happens
to a lot of people.”
From 1991 to 1995, Bruschi
was a defensive end on the
famed “Desert Swarm” defense.
“Arizona was a place where
I could succeed,” Bruschi
said. “Dick Tomey taught me
how to be a good collegian
and the older players there
taught me how to succeed.”
On Nov. 24, 1995, with a
sack of former Arizona State
quarterback Jake Plummer,
Bruschi tied former
Alabama and Kansas City
Chiefs star Derrick Thomas
for the NCAA Division I-A
record with 52 sacks.
Bruschi would have the
record all by himself had it
not been for defensive tackle
Chuck Osborne, who when
Bruschi tackled Plummer
piled on to get half-credit for
the sack.
“It was in the last minute
of the last drive,” Bruschi
said. “Just as I brought
him down, Chuck Osborne
jumped on him and I said to
him, ‘Chuck, couldn’t you let
me have this one by myself.’
That was the play I remembered.”

 

1st & Only Bump.