Mike Adamle article
Reading stories his week about Dwight Clark, Gayle Sayers and now Mike Adamle are just so sad. For those who don't remember Adamle was a terrific player for Northwestern and a darn good pro. The guy was extremely smart, funny and good looking which led to a career in broadcasting after football. This article on Mike really touched me and there are some great stories here. Prayers to Mike and his family and everyone suffering from dimentia and CTE.
Adamle was always classy, even when he was in the "growing" stage as a TV personality. Sad to hear.
I'm not surprised that there aren't more players in his condition. Getting your bell rung was a sign that you hit someone. You maybe got a play off before you went back in.
Also back then, helmets flat out sucked. They started doing serious science on their design when I was in high school.
I remember him being a play-by-play guy for WWE when Jim Ross left the company and later as the GM of Monday Night Raw. It was almost part of his shtick to be bad with wrestlers names. I wonder how much his disease impacted his ability to do his job even back then.
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Wasn't Mike also the main PBP guy on American Gladiators?
Northwestern legend. He ws an All-American there in the late 1960s --- Northwestern was decent there, right before their futiltiy of the 1970s and 1980s.
That was before my time, my knowledge there is from the history books. In my time, he hosted American Gladiators, with Todd Christensen.
70-71 were his all-American years.
quite a bit in recent years as the sports reporter for NBC 5 in Chicago. but all accounts, he was a great guy. they recently did a feature on his career. I feel for his family. best wishes to him and those who love him.
and the news about Dwight Clark is awful. But still they play, and still we watch.
Adamle has CTE?
That saddens me. I remember watching him on the abc Chicago affiliate and thought he was great even then, and I genuinely looked forward to him for the local sports scene. You could tell that he was made for television sports journalism and was too good for just local sports. I hope things go for him as well as they possibly can.
It can't be confirmed without an autopsy. The sadness of this news is slightly offset by his great stories mentioned.
I just saw him in the grocery store the other day in Evanston. Sad story for him and so many others. My father has dementia (non-football related) and my daughter is recovering from a concussion, so we're focused on brain health right now. My daughter went to a neurospsychologist who consults for the Bears, and we learned a lot about concussions, and treatment. And we're having to put my father in memory care because of his dementia. I think the brain is the most fascinating and probably confounding organ to study.
My elderly father just recovered from relatively minor surgery and stayed a few nights in an assisted living facilty that had a wing that specialized in dimentia patients. Wow! That was an eye opening experience.
Thanks. It really is depressing to think that people can live while their brains die a slow death. And it isn't just memories they lose; it's the ability to understand basic concepts like bathing, eating, where they live, etc.
I remember him as the sideline reporter at UM games when i was a kid. My dad pointed out who he was and where he played and told me what a class act he had been as a player. Prayers to him and his family.
March 27th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^
I loved the Bubba Smith anecdote, plus the Hank Stram impersonation story.
Adamle's playing days were before my time, thus I associate him with American Gladiators.
I wonder if there will ever be something we can do for cumulative head trauma besides try to prevent it.
that is slowly but almost certainly gaining on Adamle.
What will it take for the NFL and CFB to reinvest in their own future--- better yet, in the future of football at EVERY level---and make the hard but necessary choices to fully fund the fight against football-related head injuries? Money is being made by The League and by CFB like never before and yet, progress still seems too slow in prevention of more brain injuries.
Yes, research takes time, but in the meantime, I'm strongly in favor of the NFL greatly increasing their support (and funding) for educating coaches and parents on the best practices in injury prevention, all the way down to the grassroots level of peewee league football.
The alternative is that football struggles to exist because kids and their parents opt for what are perceived to be safer activities.