Football is a rough sport. When the objective of the game is to level opponents with head crushing blows and hit the other teams players as hard as you can, it’s pretty safe to assume that their might be some lasting effects to the players who decided to turn this sport into a career. That is especially the case with Jets legend and franchise sacks leader Mark Gastineau. In this article I’ve chosen, the former athlete opens up on the multiple brain diseases he is dealing with as the result of his playing career. Some of these diseases include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.

The article has a link to a podcast Mark did with Pete McCarthy this week, the link is audio only and you can really hear how serious these diseases were by the tone of his voice. He elaborated on how he would end up places with no recollection of how he ended up there, the audio really captures how he feels going through all of that. I would have added a video of Marks highlights to show how dominant he was back in his day to not make the article so depressing. He was an entertaining player who would dance after every sack and really show passion to the game and i feel that got lost a little in the article.

Link to the Article: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2688167-mark-gastineau-says-hes-been-diagnosed-with-alzheimers-parkinsons-dementia