Pat Summitt diagnosed w/dementia?

Did anyone else, after reading Jenkins's column, come away wondering whether Summitt will really end up coaching his year? Or whether she should?

It's a different disease, though still neurological, but I am reminded of Lou Gehrig trying to play through things in 1939 before finally realizing he couldn't.

 

It's different strokes for different folks, and that basketball program is her life ... but if I was in her position (facing that illness and money being no object) I'd spend the next couple of years seeing and doing everything I wanted to do in life because there isn't going to be much of a later.

 

It's amazing how fast this disease can hit somebody. In two years, my grandfather went from leading a normal life to hospice to the grave.

It's a heartbreaking disease because it causes the victim to forget the people who love them the most, the people trying to help them. It's just devastating.

 

I'd seen Jenkins' article earlier and almost couldn't make it through without choking up. She's such an awesome writer.

Summitt's class all the way. Godspeed.

 

I get the impression that her basketball program, and the teaching and leading she does there, is what she most wants to do in life. You don't do the same thing for nearly 40 years unless it fits you like a glove and you can't imagine doing anything else.

We'll see what happens as this coming season goes on. But don't underestimate Pat Summitt.

 

My local paper put online a statement from the local major college football coach on Pat Summitt revealing she has dementia.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for her as a person and as a coach, who's probably achieved as much as anyone in our profession," Saban said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. I hope that she can continue to affect young people and live a normal healthy life for many years to come. Certainly she has made a mark in our profession that few will be able to match or challenge, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way her players always compete and respond to her and have a tremendous amount of loyalty to her."

I'm sorry, but who gives a flying fuck what Nick Saban thinks about Pat Summitt getting dementia. They never worked together, they aren't close... seriously. what's next? Asking him what he thinks on the riots in England or the Earthquake in Virginia?????
Jeebus Keyrist...

 

Just because they haven't worked together doesn't mean they don't know each other.

 

In Tennessee, IRT the women you love most, it goes like this:
1. Your mother
2. Your grandmothers
3. Pat Summit
4. Dolly Parton

As a Vol and after having seen my grandfather deal with dementia for 10 years until he lost the battle, yeah, it's been a tough day. I've met her a couple of times. Pat as a human being transcends Pat the coach, if that's even fathomable.

 

Summitt's son is a pretty damn poised 20-year-old.

 

Anybody read the Glen Campbell profile in the new edition of Rolling Stone?

He's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 75. Doesn't remember his second wife, who he was married to for 16 years. Doesn't remember his torrid relationship with Tanya Tucker in the mid-'70s.

Yet he remembers who Bob Dylan is because Jakob Dylan's worked on his new - and final - record. Remembers Frank Sinatra calling him a fag for staring at him - Campbell played on "Strangers in the Night." (Who knew?)

Just an awful, awful disease.

 

Glen played on the Beach Boys legendary "Pet Sounds" album and toured with them in Brian Wilson's place.

 

Gehrig didn't know he had the disease officially until June of '39. He just thought he was in a slump in the spring of '39, and it wasn't until he started struggling to make even routine plays that he figured out something was wrong in the beginning of May. Even then, he remained on the active roster and was hoping to shake off what he had and get back in the lineup.

He was feeling progressively worse, and after struggling in an exhibition game, finally decided to see the Mayo Clinic, where he was told that he could no longer play.