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George Visger sat in his truck, a prized possession since everything else was gone, but struggled to remember the model and year. “It’s, uh, a Chevy. Yeah. A Trailblazer, I think. 2003. No, wait, 2009. Probably around then.”
The former professional footballer paused, annoyed with himself for fluffing a banal question about the vehicle. He could not help it: fog drifts through his memory, shrouding information registered moments – or years – earlier.
In his prime as a defensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers Visger smashed through opponents with raw, physical, power, a 6ft 5in block of muscle and grit. Now aged 56, homeless and jobless in Sacramento, he battles mental obstacles with Post-it notes and waterproof notebooks, hundreds of waterproof notebooks, scribbled with details he might otherwise forget – whom he speaks to, the reason he goes somewhere, where he parks.
The system does not always work. Once, coming out of Home Depot, he found a strange car where his truck should have been. He roved the parking lot for 65 minutes, repeatedly returning to the spot, baffled, until he remembered his truck was being repaired and that he had borrowed a buddy’s car. He had been driving it for a week.
“I remember what’s in here, though,” Visger said this week. There was a rattling sound as he rummaged in the glove compartment. “My little brain drain emergency kit.”
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The plastic box contains an antiseptic pad, a razor, a syringe and a note from his doctor about how to siphon excess spinal fluid from a dime-sized hole in the side of Visger’s skull if he falls into a coma. He brings the kit everywhere hopeful that in an emergency someone, anyone, will follow the instructions. “This is how I frigging have to live.”
As America sits down to one of the year’s biggest football weekends the film Concussion, which launches in US cinemas on Christmas Day, is raising awareness about the game’s human cost. Based on a true story, Will Smith plays Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian forensic pathologist who discovered a disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), devastating former players.
His autopsy of the former Pittsburgh Steeler “Iron Mike” Webster in 2002 helped to explain how the Hall of Fame athlete, considered one of the best centres in National Football League (NFL) history, fell into dementia, depression and destitution. Before his death at the age of 50 Webster put Super Glue on his rotting teeth and used a Taser gun to ease back pain.
Omalu linked Webster’s suffering to repeated blows to the head during games, a finding with profound and disturbing implications for all football players, amateur and professional. The NFL denied it and tried to discredit Omalu but mounting scientific evidence, congressional hearings and a class action lawsuit by former players forced the league, which dominates American sport and television ratings, to recognise the crisis.
The settlement, approved earlier this year by a federal judge, could cost the NFL $1bn over 65 years. It expects 6,000 of nearly 20,000 retired players to eventually suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or moderate dementia.