Former Michigan, NFL running back Ron Johnson has Alzheimer's

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/sports/football/ex-giants-case-is-a-window-on-nfl-aid.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=sports

Man, that is so sad. It really makes you wonder who else from the NFL is headed down that path. Something tells me a lot of guys will be in his shoes.

Ron was Michigan's first black football captain and still holds the school's single-game rushing yardage record; a respected NFL running back; and a respected businessman. By all impressions, he's a great guy. He's just 63.

Damn.

 

Really sad. I met him when I was a kid. He came to speak at our Temple, we drove him to the event and I got to actually have a conversation with an NFL player, heady stuff for a 9 year old. I was in elementary school and he couldn't be nicer. 1st Giant to gain 1,000 yards rushing.

 

Is it the fault of football or genes?

 

It might be genes in Ron's case, but you're going to see a lot of cases that are the fault of football, especially as the players have gotten so much bigger.

 

Interesting side note: Ron's brother, Alex, is a former major league outfielder.

 

The problem right now with only being able to do CTE analysis after-the-fact (i.e., after death) is that you don't know who is most vulnerable to developing concussion-related conditions. It's possible that people who are already most susceptible to Alzheimer's could get it quicker and harder because of multiple hits to the head.

 

Sad. Johnson stayed incredibly fit in his later years. I can think of at least 10 times I would walk into a hotel gym at some event we both happened to be at and Johnson would be cranking away on threadmill at fast pace. When you see a lot of ex pro's let themselves go I always admired his commitment to stay in shape.

The Giants ran him into the ground because he was all they had. He had a lot of carries in a short span of time.

 

That was on the back of Ron Johnson's football card

 

Also one hell of an audio consultant at Pacific Stereo.

 

Wasn't Ron Johnson the guy who deflowered Jennifer Jason Leigh in Fast Times?

 

You're already seen a lot of them.

And the line will never end, given we're talking about a collision sport, unless they alter the helmets and/or rules markedly.

And then (especially in the latter case), it's not the same game.

 

At 63, I think he is ahead of the life expectancy curve for the NFL by eight or so years.