I met him once at a Super Bowl party in 1991 in Lake Tahoe. He was a very friendly down to earth guy. For what its worth he correctly picked the Giants to win. I still remember his exact quote, "For those of you who bet on Buffalo I am sorry to say, but you are going to lose"
but I wonder if this is similar to what happened to Kevin Turner, the former Patriot/Eagle fullback. He was diagnosed with ALS and after he passed away it was determined to be CTE. As more dangers of head injuries in the NFL is made known, it's no surprise players are looking to get their money and retire sooner.
I believe those ice bucket challenges did provide something meaningful in terms of research that might have been a breakthrough.
We'll see.
An absolutely terrible disease
http://yfals.als.net/ambassador/matt-bellina - ( New Window )
And separately of note about Clark, when I did the 1985 Wild Card game review vs. the Niners, Clark got nailed early in the game. Sat out a few series and came back with only a "slight concussion". Guys who played in the 1970s and 1980s are prime for awful stories about brain injuries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/11/03/former-nfl-player-kevin-turners-death-caused-by-cte-not-als/?utm_term=.1773d2ff4fa4 - ( New Window )
Clark only played 9 seasons, but that was the '80s....a rough decade for WRs.
Cris Collinsworth played 8 seasons ('81-88), and always talked about being annihilated on the field.
Insidious disease.
An absolutely terrible disease http://yfals.als.net/ambassador/matt-bellina - ( New Window )
Horrible. Sorry to hear about this jlukes. Also tragic news about Dwight Clark.