Former QB Jim McMahon lends his brain to science
Jim McMahon may have been an outspoken rebel of the NFL’s policies during his playing days. However, the former Chicago Bears quarterback is now embracing his role in medicine’s ongoing effort to reduce and prevent the effects of brain trauma in athletes
like himself, as well as other groups deemed to be at risk.
The former play-caller supports the fact that medical researchers at Boston University would like to study his brain in an effort to treat and prevent the long-term effects of the collisions, hits, and injuries that players like McMahon suffer over the course
of their careers. The 51-year-old McMahon, who led his 1985 Bears to a dominant 46-10 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots, often reflects on his current situation and the subsequent advances in the field of medicine that will be necessary to prevent
the effects of brain trauma in the future.
“My memory’s pretty much gone,” he recently told the Chicago Tribune. “There are a lot of times when I walk into a room and forget why I walked in there. I’m going through some studies right now, and I am going to do a brain scan. It’s unfortunate what the
game does to you.”
Likewise, McMahon’s girlfriend, Laurie Navon, commented on the negative impact and severity of the former QB’s situation. “He does forget things,” she told reporters on Wednesday. “He’ll ask you a question, and 20 minutes later, will ask you the same question.
Initially, I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t.”
According to a recent interview with ESPNChicago.com, McMahon, whose playing career spanned 15 years, deals with the pain and after-effects of his time in the NFL on a daily basis. And, even though he asserts that he can’t do many of the same things that made
him so great on the gridiron (including running), he wouldn’t have changed his playing style at all.
Still, both McMahon and Navon hope that a recent partnership with the Sports Legacy Institute will improve the post-career lives of other athletes for generations to come. “He’s going to become very active [with the Sports Legacy Institute] and try to get as
many former players involved as he can,” Navon told reporters. “He feels it’s important to get more information out there. He and others took the blows for the young kids today, and now the rules are changing after they took all the hits.”
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