Rob Lytle Article

Submitted by ElBictors on

A few days ago I reached out to Denver-based sportswriter Terry Frei to see if he was aware of Kelly Lytle's new book because Frei had written a great book on the 1977 Orange Crush Broncos and in it, detailed the recruitment of Rob Lytle (and Randy Gradishar) by Bo and Woody.

Terry wrote the following piece, appearing in today's local Denver paper ..

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_28194650/cte-warning-signs-existed…

 

I know posting links to sites is a no-no, but this is a great (short) piece on Lytle and the family's battle with CTE and the NFL.  The book is great too ...

MeanJoe07

May 27th, 2015 at 5:09 PM ^

I predict more than one commenter person will say "This was already posted a while back, wah wah wah wah " even though it's new content.

Let's see what happens, maybe I'll be wrong . . .

predicting human behavior is fun for us

- stay mean

ElBictors

May 27th, 2015 at 5:29 PM ^

Frei's article today is new and the relationship he has with the Lytle family is on-going.  I know Mr. Bacon helped Kelly get the book started and while the topic of CTE isn't new, it isn't going away either.

Lytle was one of my favorite Broncos as a kid ...before I knew of MICHIGAN.

Don

May 27th, 2015 at 5:47 PM ^

but it's especially awful when it affects former Wolverines from any era.

Considering what the future had in store for him, Lytle might have been lucky to pass quickly before he got to the point of not knowing his own family or who he was.

xtramelanin

May 27th, 2015 at 6:10 PM ^

and insightful about how lytle was apparently compensating for his advanced CTE in his later years, almost unnoticed.  i wonder if thats what will happen to me and others of my generation who played a long time.  i get the bit about loving the game and even practices and not wanting to quit.  

LSAClassOf2000

May 27th, 2015 at 6:15 PM ^

After reading that article, I would like to read this book actually because it would be intriguing to read such an account of how CTE affects the families of these players, especially players from an era where there really wasn't a lot of awareness of what was happening to players on virtually every play in some cases. 

Very poignant article. Thanks for sharing it.

WolverineHistorian

May 27th, 2015 at 7:08 PM ^

Kelly Lytle is a really nice guy.  He contacted me through YouTube a couple months after Rob's death.  He asked if I would email him any highlights of his dad's playing days (which I always offer to former players and their families).  Unfortunately, since only a couple games were televised per-season in the 70's, I had so little footage to send him. 

When he died, I wanted to make Lytle some sort of tribute video.  All I really had to work with was an interview he did about being a Heisman candidate before the 76 Minnesota game (crappy picture quality and all) plus barely a minute of highlights. 

Kelly told me they ended up playing the video at his funeral...

 

ElBictors

May 27th, 2015 at 7:17 PM ^

Okay, good to know - didn't want to be thought of as spamming or anything.

Agree on the part about how Lytle was able to 'mask' the symptoms and generally sad. The part about the 08 Northwestern rings true with other similar cases.

Unsalted

May 27th, 2015 at 11:04 PM ^

Thanks for sharing OP. Rob Lytle has always been one of my favorite players. His Jr and Sr seasons were my Fr and So years at Michigan. I moved to Colorado in 1982 and I was sad when he had to retire a year later.

It truly was a different time when it came to using your helmut. I played in high school (not well but I loved it) and I had my lights turned out a couple times. When you look at pictures of Lytle you know his head took too many collisions. This CTE scares the hell out of me. I love and have always loved football, but my love of the game should not be at the expense of a quality life for the players.

I hope Kelly and his family can take some solace in the fact he brought joy to so many fans.

RIP Mr Lytle.

Michigan Man all the way!

 

Yo_Blue

May 28th, 2015 at 3:07 PM ^

I met the man after the OSU game my freshman year.  When I got back to AA with the Marching Band he was sitting in my living room having a beer with my roommates.  It took me a while to figure out who he was after I asked him if his seats for the game were any good.  He said he stood the whole time - then introduced himself.  I felt like an idiot but he became a favorite from that moment on.