Gay Culverhouse is fighting to save lives while managing her own illness. She has cancer and renal failure; and she has been told that it is terminal. Nevertheless, she has unfinished business and it involved the well being of former professional football players:
“… Culverhouse looked at disability forms, listened to stories, offered counsel and expressed regret. She has done the same via telephone this year for another half-dozen former Buccaneers with increasing cognitive problems in their 40s or 50s. Having followed story after story detailing how N.F.L. retirees are experiencing various forms of dementia at several times the national rate, and listening to the N.F.L. and its doctors cast doubt that football played any role in their problems, she has emerged after 15 years to reconnect with her players and sound an alarm.”
link: Ex-N.F.L. Executive Sounds Alarm on Head Injury
additional link: Key N.F.L. Concussion Committee Members Not on Witness List
Gay Culverhouse was a top executive in the NFL. She was the president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At a time when her own health is failing, Gay Culverhouse is taking care of former players.
As Congressman John Conyers noted, the well being of former football players and their head injuries involves “matters of life and death”. Gay Culverhouse is lending a voice to those players now who cannot speak for themselves. She is doing this under the trying personal circumstances.
Winston Churchill one said that “courage is what it takes to stand up and speak”. Kudos to Gay Culverhouse. May she be heard.
Catherine Forsythe
[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]
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