Forrest Gregg fighting Parkinson's, maybe not the NFL

GREENWOOD COMMUNITY, Colo. (AP) a Hall of Famer Forrest Gregg says that while he and his neurologist responsibility concussions for his Parkinson's disease, he's not planning to sue the NFL like thousands of other former players. The 79-year-old says he does not begrudge those people who have joined the lawsuits but he has his pensions from his playing and teaching days and "I do not need anything from anyone but what I earned." He said he is an "independent type" and does not believe in holding others accountable for his well-being. "And my knowledge in the National Football League was good," said Gregg, who is promoting UCB, Inc.'s "Parkinson's A Lot More Than Motion" strategy throughout Parkinson's Awareness Month. Gregg said he is successful 18 months after his diagnosis and breaks medication, exercise and daily calls from his daughter and former teammates to reminisce concerning the good ol' days, which keeps his mind sharp. The former offensive lineman referred to as "Iron Mike" said he desires to help others understand the signs of Parkinson's and seek treatment early enough to delay the degenerative effects of the chronic, debilitating illness on both head and body. When Gregg was identified, his neurologist, Dr. Rajeev Kumar, a Parkinson's specialist and medical director of the Colorado Neurological Institute's Movement Disorders Center in Denver, said the many concussions Gregg experienced during his playing days may have served as a trigger for Parkinson's. A lot more than two dozen Hall of Famers are among the 4,200 former participants who contend the group misled them about the harmful effects of concussions. In recent years, scores of former NFL players and other concussed athletes have been identified after their deaths with serious traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, including popular Pro Bowler Junior Seau and guide plaintiff Ray Easterling. Suicide was committed by both last year. About one-third of the league's 12,000 former players have joined the lawsuit since Easterling filed suit in 2011. Some are struggling dementia, depression or Alzheimer's disease, and mistake the category for speeding them back on the field after concussions. Others are involved about potential problems and want their health watched. "I have already been asked to become listed on these lawsuits and my gut feeling, first thought is no," Gregg said. "I will always be an unbiased kind, I never believed in somebody else being accountable for my life and for my well-being." Gregg praised the NFL for its crackdown on illegal visitors and enhanced method on concussions and claimed he applauds Roger Goodell for as commissioner is lowering head upheaval in the overall game although it is changing the activity that he played and taught saying his priority. At the owners conferences last month, the NFL barred ball providers from using the top of these helmets to produce forcible contact with a defense in the open field and also eliminated the peel-back block every-where on the field. The game appears different from usually the one Gregg played from 1956-71 with the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys and later coached, but Gregg said he doesn't mind that. "Anything that can be achieved to greatly help in that regard, in that respect, I do believe is good, any time you avoid an accident by changing the rules," Gregg said. "I know since these players are likely to need certainly to relearn how exactly to play the overall game it is difficult. "Right today if I was training defensive linemen, it would be considered a hard matter for me personally to share with my linemen where you should tackle the quarterback. If you handle him above the shoulders, you hit him in the head and that's a charge. He is tackled by you below the hips, that is illegal. Or you fly him down to the bottom and if you've your hands on him, that is illegal. So, what's left? Perhaps his belt buckle, that is about it," Gregg said. "And I really do not say that's wrong, because anything that may avoid accidents to ball players is good." Gregg said he was shown in senior high school in the 1950s that "the helmet was the main weaponry." "My senior high school coach said should they try to run you around, you give some plastic," to them he remembered. "That was just the overall game, it certainly was. No one thought such a thing about finding hurt." Gregg suffered so many concussions he lost count, even though he remembers onetime he was so dazed he sat on the other team's bench and when he found by having an ice pack on his neck, participants on the other staff told him he'd been "gone for a while." Gregg said he'd still have chosen to play the sport even though he had known there would be a price to pay later in life, however. A tackle, Gregg and guard is among three NFL players to win a-half dozen NFL titles, including the first two Super Bowls with the Packers. Gregg concluded his career with yet another Super Bowl title with the Cowboys in 1971. He went on to teach the Bengals, Browns and Packers. There's no treatment for Parkinson's, but a mix of medications, exercise and physical therapy can delay the effects of the condition that strikes more than 50,000 Americans every year. Gregg said he first went to the physician when he noticed his left hand trembling in 2011. Even though his motor signs began to exhibit up within the year or two before that, Gregg's partner, Barbara, said he began working out his longs for 15 years ago. Kumar said this phenomenon, called REM sleep behavior disorder, was a possible early danger signal of Parkinson's. Onetime he dreamed he was trying to strangle a snake and his wife had to sock him to obtain him to let go of her wrist. Yet another time he dreamed he was straight back preventing for Bart Starr and shoved her out of their sleep. Sleep issues, memory loss and fatigue are some of the possible symptoms of Parkinson's combined with the common engine elements such as for instance slowness or tremors. The Greggs are sharing their story by way of a reality-style movie series that is part of "Parkinson's More than Motion" Facebook community and follows the couple because they deal with the illness and its treatment. "I will tell you what, it is mental. You've to fight finding down," Gregg said. "And I've been on the physical regimen. In reality, I think I was training an excessive amount of. I forget I was 79 as opposed to 39. And so I'd to back away a bit and if I miss per day working out now I do not worry. The main thing is to continue to workout, try to hold an excellent attitude." Com www.Parkinson.org. Etc AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton can be reached at astapleton( at )ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/arniestapleton

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