Rastak
06-17-2007, 07:51 PM
By: MIKE SULLIVAN - Staff Writer
Brent Boyd has no memory of what otherwise would have been a meaningless play during a 1980 NFL preseason contest in Miami. The former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman just remembers waking up and feeling an overwhelming sense of panic.
His head ached and he had temporarily lost vision in his right eye. He remembers saying as much and being asked by an assistant coach if he could see out of his other eye.
When he answered affirmatively, Boyd, then a rookie, was told to get back in the game.
"That's just what the culture was," Boyd, a North County resident from 1981-2002, recalled during a recent phone interview. "If the injury wasn't to a weight-bearing bone, it was just a nuisance. You were kind of relieved if all you had was a concussion. If you didn't sprain an ankle or something, you were happy.
"Nobody ever told us there would be long-term ramifications."
An issue that arose as a hot topic in the 1990s when several star quarterbacks were concussion victims will be under the spotlight Tuesday in Chicago. Mounting evidence that multiple concussions lead to depression and other health issues has prompted the NFL to bring team physicians and trainers from all 32 teams together for a day-long health and safety education session.
There was little or no education in the early '80s when Boyd suffered his head injury. It would be nearly two decades later before Boyd would learn his chronic dizziness, fatigue, depression, headaches and lack of energy was tied to a head injury. By that point, his life was in chaos. He could no longer hold a job and occasionally slept in his car or in a tent at San Elijo State Beach Campground in Cardiff.
Boyd applied for monthly disability payments through the NFL Players Association. He was granted $1,550 per month for being disabled and unable to work but was seeking $8,200 per month, the higher-level payment that he could receive if his disability was determined to be caused by a football-related injury.
Two NFLPA-appointed doctors agreed that Boyd was disabled from football-related activities. But then the NFLPA Disability Board, which has "absolute discretion and authority" on such matters, requested Boyd see one more physician in March, 2001. That doctor's report stated Boyd's condition had nothing to do with his head injury.
Boyd's claim for full disability benefits was denied the following month. He later challenged the decision in court. The NFLPA prevailed, leaving him hopeless and disillusioned with the process.
"All the ducks were lined up in a row," said the 50-year-old Boyd, who now lives in Reno, Nev. "Their first doctor says yes and the second doctor says yes and to wind up being denied hurt me as much as any of the symptoms that I filed a claim for to begin with.
"It's such a betrayal. I love football, and they betrayed me."
Hot topic
Tuesday's concussion summit in Chicago is viewed as a positive step by the NFL. The league recently announced increased testing procedures and has promised that "medical decisions must always override competitive considerations."
Commissioner Roger Goodell will be in attendance and many members of the league's Mild-Trumatic Brain Injury Committee will conduct presentations of various topics related to concussions. Attending on behalf of the Chargers are team doctors David Chao and Calvin Wong and trainers James Collins and Damon Mitchell.
"Enhancing the health and safety of our players is the purpose of the conference," said Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice president of public relations. "We have devoted a great deal of time, attention, and money to the subject of concussions for more than a decade. We want to continue for all NFL team physicians and athletic trainers to have access to the most up-to-date information on state-of-the-art diagnosis, care and management of concussions."
The MTBI Committee was formed in 1994, the decade where star quarterbacks such as Troy Aikman, Joe Montana and Steve Young had multiple incidents that curtailed their careers. Also, Chargers quarterback Stan Humphries had his career ended prematurely after suffering six documented concussions from 1993-97.
Other players who dealt with concussion issues included quarterbacks Chris Miller and current Torrey Pines High golf coach Chris Chandler, receiver Al Toon and running back Merrill Hoge.
The cumulative effects of head injuries led to the death of Hall of Fame center Mike Webster of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Webster died in 2002 at age 50 after a myriad of problems related to his 17-year NFL career. Webster eventually became homeless and published accounts say his pain was such that he sometimes used a stun gun to knock himself into unconsciousness just so he could sleep.
Last November, hard-hitting safety Andre Waters shot himself to death at age 44. Neuropathologist Bennett Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh examined the brain of the former Philadelphia Eagle and told the New York Times that Waters' brain tissue had degenerated to that of an 85-year old man with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Waters suffered numerous concussions during a 12-year playing career that ended in 1995.
Earlier this year, Carlsbad High graduate Ted Johnson, a former star linebacker with the New England Patriots, went public with his story about how two concussions he suffered days apart in 2002 led to the decline of his health. Johnson, 34, told the Boston Globe that his symptoms include depression, dizziness, excessive drowsiness, fatigue, memory loss, ringing in the ears and noise sensitivity.
More and more experts are viewing multiple concussions as greatly increasing the risk of clinical depression.
A recent study of 2,552 retired NFL players that was unveiled at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting found that players who suffered at least three concussions during their careers were three times more likely to develop clinical depression as players who didn't suffer any concussions.
It is with this backdrop that the league gathers in Chicago this week to discuss the topics of concussions. Helmets have improved dramatically over the past 40 to 50 years, and coaches and trainers have become more cautious with sending players back into games after a head injury.
"The increased awareness is great," Chargers coach Norv Turner said. "I know that in the past, where a guy might be rushed back in, that certainly doesn't happen now. There's just no way they're going to be let in the game."
But most concussion experts feel much more awareness is needed. The league appears ready to tackle the issue.
"Football is such a small part of your life if you look at a 65 or 70-year-old man," said Chargers tackle Roman Oben, the team's player representative. "You talk about knees and elbows and your back, but your brain, next to your heart, is your most important function. So obviously you don't want someone to have any adverse effects from playing football that affect them 20 to 30 years later when they're just trying to live normal daily functions.
"I think the league has done a good job of trying to bring awareness to this situation."
Lightning bolt
Montana, one of the legends of the game, estimates he suffered five or six concussions during his NFL career. There's no guesswork involved when it comes to which blow to the head scared him most.
The terrifying concussion occurred early in the second half of the 1993 AFC championship game against the Buffalo Bills. The effects were so horrific Montana almost didn't return for the 1994 season.
"That last one hurt," Montana said while in San Diego recently to raise awareness for high blood pressure prevention.
"Before, the other ones didn't physically hurt you like a hit in the head. They hurt, but I don't remember a lot of pain.
"This one was like a lightning bolt from one side of my head to the other. That one hurt. That really made me start thinking about not finishing out my contract in Kansas City."
Montana had been knocked unconscious and hospitalized seven years earlier after being crushed by New York Giants defensive tackle Jim Burt in a divisional playoff game. But even that concussion didn't worry him as much as the final one of his 16-year NFL career.
Now 51 and retired from football for 13 years, Montana said he hasn't had any concussion-related problems.
"Sometimes I have short-term memory issues on occasions and my wife says they are selective," Montana said with a laugh. "But nothing I've noticed as of yet."
Montana acknowledges the future is a concern.
There's no way for him to know if all the hits to the head might someday leave him struggling to function properly.
Aikman recently said publicly he has no symptoms from the reported 10 concussions he endured during his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Aikman said the headaches he suffers from are linked to life-long issue with migraines.
Perhaps the worst concussion of Aikman's career came when he was knocked out of the 1993 NFC championship game.
His agent, Leigh Steinberg, has been quoted as saying Aikman repeatedly asked him later that night if he had played in a football game that day.
"The most significant one when I was there was when he got knocked out in the championship game and then played the next week in the Super Bowl," said Turner, then the Cowboys' offensive coordinator. "During that week, he did everything normal, but I know after the fact from talking to him, it had some effects on him."
Seeing what Aikman went through is just one of the many reasons why Turner is glad to see the upcoming discussion of concussions. He feels education can help prevent future issues and lead to better decision-making after a player suffers a concussion.
One man's battle
Boyd started nine games as a Minnesota rookie but noticed he was having trouble learning his role as a left guard at the start of his second season in 1981.
Things got worse when Boyd suffered a devastating injury to his right knee and had to undergo reconstructive surgery. He began taking anti-inflammatory medicines, including Indocin, a drug that reduces pain and inflammation.
He describes having "killer headaches" and complaining to Vikings' trainers that his head constantly hurt.
Each time he broached the subject, he was told that the headaches were a side effect of Indocin.
Boyd said he had headaches throughout the remainder of his NFL career, which ended in 1986. He continued to take Indocin until 1996.
Off the medicine, he noticed his headaches were still intense. Plus, he was heavily depressed and constantly fatigued. He repeatedly saw doctors over his mounting health issues and was being tested to see if he had cancer.
In late 1998 or early 1999, a doctor asked him the following question: "Have you ever had a head injury?"
Just like that, everything clicked. Boyd thought back to the concussion in 1980, when he couldn't see out of his eye, and things began to make sense.
"By that time, I'd been out of football for so long that I wasn't thinking concussions any more and nobody had ever brought it up," Boyd said. "I was thinking I was dying of something else."
Boyd saw a neurologist who did a brain scan and the neurologist determined he indeed had brain damage.
At that point, Boyd sought out friend Barry Axelrod, the well-respected baseball agent who is based in Encinitas. Boyd and Axelrod both attended UCLA and had often spent time together. Axelrod helped Boyd file a disability claim with the NFLPA.
Meanwhile, Axelrod had noticed changes in Boyd over the previous decade and was saddened by Boyd's decline. He helped put together a group of 20 to 25 people ---- unbeknownst to Boyd at the time was that the group included baseball players Jeff Bagwell, Mark Grace and Rick Sutcliffe ---- who began helping Boyd financially.
Boyd was raising his son, Anders, now 18, and would often drop Anders off at his ex-wife's house in Vista and then sleep in the driver's seat of his Infiniti. That stopped when the car was repossessed.
Eventually, Boyd, who had been sleeping in the parking lots at San Elijo Campground or Torrey Pines State Beach, got an apartment.
After receiving the claim, the NFLPA sent Boyd to see San Diego neurologist Sterling Ford in May of 2000. Ford found that Boyd was permanently disabled as a result of a head injury.
In late August, Boyd was sent to see Long Beach psychiatrist Branko Radisavljevic, who also found that Boyd was disabled because of a football injury.
Boyd and Axelrod now figured it would be a slam-dunk to get Boyd disability benefits with both NFLPA doctors agreeing with Boyd's physician.
"That was unheard of," Axelrod said. "Usually you're going to get a report back that is contrary to your position and then you have to go get your doctor and fight it out and you end up reaching a resolution. This was off the charts."
Instead, it led to continual frustration. The NFLPA's six-member Disability Board wanted Boyd to see another neurologist. Boyd was flown to Baltimore in March 2001 to see Barry Gordon of John Hopkins University.
Gordon concluded that Boyd's head injury in 1980 wasn't responsible for the health problems and depression Boyd was experiencing. The next month, the Disability Board denied Boyd's request for full degenerative disability benefits.
Boyd later took legal action and the courts backed the decision, saying the NFLPA Disability Board did nothing improper while evaluating Boyd's claim.
Boyd accuses the NFLPA of "doctor shopping" ---- finding a doctor who would give them the opinion they were seeking.
"That's why they had to send me to Baltimore," Boyd said. "It was doctor shopping, there's no doubt about it. They had to get somebody to say it was impossible."
Asked to comment on Boyd's case, NFLPA director of communications Carl Francis declined.
"We try not to make comments on individual cases," Francis said. "That would not be fair to the player or the process of people filing disability claims."
Ending the silence
Boyd never planned on being an outspoken opponent of the NFLPA. He loved playing football and emphasizes he has no issues with the Vikings. He rates playing for famed coach Bud Grant as one of his most cherished memories.
Going public was a heart-wrenching decision for Boyd.
As his life declined, he felt ashamed and didn't want his friends ---- let alone the public ---- to know the depths of his troubles and despair.
Little by little, Boyd became inspired to speak. A major turning point was hearing Webster's son, Garrett, talk about his father.
"When Mike Webster's son described the last few years of Webster's life and was saying Webster was so ashamed of how he was mentally and financially that he just shut himself off from old friends and teammates, I thought, 'That's exactly what I'm doing,' " Boyd said.
"I'm not going to let the NFL shame me into doing this anymore. The more people hear stories from me and other guys like me, the more guys will come out, and that will get the current players' attention, hopefully, and then things will change.
"They can't claim ignorance anymore. They had a honeymoon period, and that period is just about over now."
Contact staff writer Mike Sullivan at (760) 739-6645 or msullivan@nctimes.com.
A sampling of some former players who are dealing with post-football ailments:
Earl Campbell, RB, Oilers/Saints
Legendary Pro Football Hall of Famer ran over players with his bruising running style but is now plagued by chronic knee and back pain.
Harry Carson, LB, Giants
Suffers from post-concussion syndrome and implored the league and union to take better care of former players during his 2006 Hall of Fame induction speech.
Conrad Dobler, G, Cardinals
Three-time Pro Bowler who also played for the Saints and Bills has undergone 11 football-related surgeries and told HBO he ingests roughly 150 Vicodin a month to deal with knee pain.
John Mackey, TE, Colts
Hall of Famer who finished his career with the Chargers in 1972 suffers from dementia. The league's new 88 Plan, implemented to aid ex-players suffering from dementia, got its name from Mackey's uniform number.
Curt Marsh, OL, Raiders
Suffered career-ending ankle injury in 1987 and had his right foot and leg amputated in 1994 when a dozen surgeries failed to alleviate the pain.
Wilber Marshall, LB, Bears/Redskins
Three-time Pro Bowler who played with five NFL teams lives in constant pain due to spinal compression, bulging discs in the back, plus knee and shoulder issues.
Mel Renfro, CB, Cowboys
Hall of Famer deals with depressions stemming from multiple concussions suffered during his college and professional career.
Ralph Wenzel, OL, Steelers/Chargers
San Diego State product now lives in assisted-living facility in Annapolis, Md., with dementia and other cognitive issues stemming from concussions during his football career.
Richard Wood, LB, Buccaneers
College Football Hall of Famer from USC recently underwent major spinal surgery after dealing with back pain during nine-year career with Jets and Bucs.
Willie Wood, S, Packers
Hall of Famer from the famous Vince Lombardi Green Bay teams suffers from dementia and diabetes, as well as knee and back pain.
Brent Boyd has no memory of what otherwise would have been a meaningless play during a 1980 NFL preseason contest in Miami. The former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman just remembers waking up and feeling an overwhelming sense of panic.
His head ached and he had temporarily lost vision in his right eye. He remembers saying as much and being asked by an assistant coach if he could see out of his other eye.
When he answered affirmatively, Boyd, then a rookie, was told to get back in the game.
"That's just what the culture was," Boyd, a North County resident from 1981-2002, recalled during a recent phone interview. "If the injury wasn't to a weight-bearing bone, it was just a nuisance. You were kind of relieved if all you had was a concussion. If you didn't sprain an ankle or something, you were happy.
"Nobody ever told us there would be long-term ramifications."
An issue that arose as a hot topic in the 1990s when several star quarterbacks were concussion victims will be under the spotlight Tuesday in Chicago. Mounting evidence that multiple concussions lead to depression and other health issues has prompted the NFL to bring team physicians and trainers from all 32 teams together for a day-long health and safety education session.
There was little or no education in the early '80s when Boyd suffered his head injury. It would be nearly two decades later before Boyd would learn his chronic dizziness, fatigue, depression, headaches and lack of energy was tied to a head injury. By that point, his life was in chaos. He could no longer hold a job and occasionally slept in his car or in a tent at San Elijo State Beach Campground in Cardiff.
Boyd applied for monthly disability payments through the NFL Players Association. He was granted $1,550 per month for being disabled and unable to work but was seeking $8,200 per month, the higher-level payment that he could receive if his disability was determined to be caused by a football-related injury.
Two NFLPA-appointed doctors agreed that Boyd was disabled from football-related activities. But then the NFLPA Disability Board, which has "absolute discretion and authority" on such matters, requested Boyd see one more physician in March, 2001. That doctor's report stated Boyd's condition had nothing to do with his head injury.
Boyd's claim for full disability benefits was denied the following month. He later challenged the decision in court. The NFLPA prevailed, leaving him hopeless and disillusioned with the process.
"All the ducks were lined up in a row," said the 50-year-old Boyd, who now lives in Reno, Nev. "Their first doctor says yes and the second doctor says yes and to wind up being denied hurt me as much as any of the symptoms that I filed a claim for to begin with.
"It's such a betrayal. I love football, and they betrayed me."
Hot topic
Tuesday's concussion summit in Chicago is viewed as a positive step by the NFL. The league recently announced increased testing procedures and has promised that "medical decisions must always override competitive considerations."
Commissioner Roger Goodell will be in attendance and many members of the league's Mild-Trumatic Brain Injury Committee will conduct presentations of various topics related to concussions. Attending on behalf of the Chargers are team doctors David Chao and Calvin Wong and trainers James Collins and Damon Mitchell.
"Enhancing the health and safety of our players is the purpose of the conference," said Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice president of public relations. "We have devoted a great deal of time, attention, and money to the subject of concussions for more than a decade. We want to continue for all NFL team physicians and athletic trainers to have access to the most up-to-date information on state-of-the-art diagnosis, care and management of concussions."
The MTBI Committee was formed in 1994, the decade where star quarterbacks such as Troy Aikman, Joe Montana and Steve Young had multiple incidents that curtailed their careers. Also, Chargers quarterback Stan Humphries had his career ended prematurely after suffering six documented concussions from 1993-97.
Other players who dealt with concussion issues included quarterbacks Chris Miller and current Torrey Pines High golf coach Chris Chandler, receiver Al Toon and running back Merrill Hoge.
The cumulative effects of head injuries led to the death of Hall of Fame center Mike Webster of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Webster died in 2002 at age 50 after a myriad of problems related to his 17-year NFL career. Webster eventually became homeless and published accounts say his pain was such that he sometimes used a stun gun to knock himself into unconsciousness just so he could sleep.
Last November, hard-hitting safety Andre Waters shot himself to death at age 44. Neuropathologist Bennett Omalu of the University of Pittsburgh examined the brain of the former Philadelphia Eagle and told the New York Times that Waters' brain tissue had degenerated to that of an 85-year old man with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. Waters suffered numerous concussions during a 12-year playing career that ended in 1995.
Earlier this year, Carlsbad High graduate Ted Johnson, a former star linebacker with the New England Patriots, went public with his story about how two concussions he suffered days apart in 2002 led to the decline of his health. Johnson, 34, told the Boston Globe that his symptoms include depression, dizziness, excessive drowsiness, fatigue, memory loss, ringing in the ears and noise sensitivity.
More and more experts are viewing multiple concussions as greatly increasing the risk of clinical depression.
A recent study of 2,552 retired NFL players that was unveiled at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting found that players who suffered at least three concussions during their careers were three times more likely to develop clinical depression as players who didn't suffer any concussions.
It is with this backdrop that the league gathers in Chicago this week to discuss the topics of concussions. Helmets have improved dramatically over the past 40 to 50 years, and coaches and trainers have become more cautious with sending players back into games after a head injury.
"The increased awareness is great," Chargers coach Norv Turner said. "I know that in the past, where a guy might be rushed back in, that certainly doesn't happen now. There's just no way they're going to be let in the game."
But most concussion experts feel much more awareness is needed. The league appears ready to tackle the issue.
"Football is such a small part of your life if you look at a 65 or 70-year-old man," said Chargers tackle Roman Oben, the team's player representative. "You talk about knees and elbows and your back, but your brain, next to your heart, is your most important function. So obviously you don't want someone to have any adverse effects from playing football that affect them 20 to 30 years later when they're just trying to live normal daily functions.
"I think the league has done a good job of trying to bring awareness to this situation."
Lightning bolt
Montana, one of the legends of the game, estimates he suffered five or six concussions during his NFL career. There's no guesswork involved when it comes to which blow to the head scared him most.
The terrifying concussion occurred early in the second half of the 1993 AFC championship game against the Buffalo Bills. The effects were so horrific Montana almost didn't return for the 1994 season.
"That last one hurt," Montana said while in San Diego recently to raise awareness for high blood pressure prevention.
"Before, the other ones didn't physically hurt you like a hit in the head. They hurt, but I don't remember a lot of pain.
"This one was like a lightning bolt from one side of my head to the other. That one hurt. That really made me start thinking about not finishing out my contract in Kansas City."
Montana had been knocked unconscious and hospitalized seven years earlier after being crushed by New York Giants defensive tackle Jim Burt in a divisional playoff game. But even that concussion didn't worry him as much as the final one of his 16-year NFL career.
Now 51 and retired from football for 13 years, Montana said he hasn't had any concussion-related problems.
"Sometimes I have short-term memory issues on occasions and my wife says they are selective," Montana said with a laugh. "But nothing I've noticed as of yet."
Montana acknowledges the future is a concern.
There's no way for him to know if all the hits to the head might someday leave him struggling to function properly.
Aikman recently said publicly he has no symptoms from the reported 10 concussions he endured during his career with the Dallas Cowboys. Aikman said the headaches he suffers from are linked to life-long issue with migraines.
Perhaps the worst concussion of Aikman's career came when he was knocked out of the 1993 NFC championship game.
His agent, Leigh Steinberg, has been quoted as saying Aikman repeatedly asked him later that night if he had played in a football game that day.
"The most significant one when I was there was when he got knocked out in the championship game and then played the next week in the Super Bowl," said Turner, then the Cowboys' offensive coordinator. "During that week, he did everything normal, but I know after the fact from talking to him, it had some effects on him."
Seeing what Aikman went through is just one of the many reasons why Turner is glad to see the upcoming discussion of concussions. He feels education can help prevent future issues and lead to better decision-making after a player suffers a concussion.
One man's battle
Boyd started nine games as a Minnesota rookie but noticed he was having trouble learning his role as a left guard at the start of his second season in 1981.
Things got worse when Boyd suffered a devastating injury to his right knee and had to undergo reconstructive surgery. He began taking anti-inflammatory medicines, including Indocin, a drug that reduces pain and inflammation.
He describes having "killer headaches" and complaining to Vikings' trainers that his head constantly hurt.
Each time he broached the subject, he was told that the headaches were a side effect of Indocin.
Boyd said he had headaches throughout the remainder of his NFL career, which ended in 1986. He continued to take Indocin until 1996.
Off the medicine, he noticed his headaches were still intense. Plus, he was heavily depressed and constantly fatigued. He repeatedly saw doctors over his mounting health issues and was being tested to see if he had cancer.
In late 1998 or early 1999, a doctor asked him the following question: "Have you ever had a head injury?"
Just like that, everything clicked. Boyd thought back to the concussion in 1980, when he couldn't see out of his eye, and things began to make sense.
"By that time, I'd been out of football for so long that I wasn't thinking concussions any more and nobody had ever brought it up," Boyd said. "I was thinking I was dying of something else."
Boyd saw a neurologist who did a brain scan and the neurologist determined he indeed had brain damage.
At that point, Boyd sought out friend Barry Axelrod, the well-respected baseball agent who is based in Encinitas. Boyd and Axelrod both attended UCLA and had often spent time together. Axelrod helped Boyd file a disability claim with the NFLPA.
Meanwhile, Axelrod had noticed changes in Boyd over the previous decade and was saddened by Boyd's decline. He helped put together a group of 20 to 25 people ---- unbeknownst to Boyd at the time was that the group included baseball players Jeff Bagwell, Mark Grace and Rick Sutcliffe ---- who began helping Boyd financially.
Boyd was raising his son, Anders, now 18, and would often drop Anders off at his ex-wife's house in Vista and then sleep in the driver's seat of his Infiniti. That stopped when the car was repossessed.
Eventually, Boyd, who had been sleeping in the parking lots at San Elijo Campground or Torrey Pines State Beach, got an apartment.
After receiving the claim, the NFLPA sent Boyd to see San Diego neurologist Sterling Ford in May of 2000. Ford found that Boyd was permanently disabled as a result of a head injury.
In late August, Boyd was sent to see Long Beach psychiatrist Branko Radisavljevic, who also found that Boyd was disabled because of a football injury.
Boyd and Axelrod now figured it would be a slam-dunk to get Boyd disability benefits with both NFLPA doctors agreeing with Boyd's physician.
"That was unheard of," Axelrod said. "Usually you're going to get a report back that is contrary to your position and then you have to go get your doctor and fight it out and you end up reaching a resolution. This was off the charts."
Instead, it led to continual frustration. The NFLPA's six-member Disability Board wanted Boyd to see another neurologist. Boyd was flown to Baltimore in March 2001 to see Barry Gordon of John Hopkins University.
Gordon concluded that Boyd's head injury in 1980 wasn't responsible for the health problems and depression Boyd was experiencing. The next month, the Disability Board denied Boyd's request for full degenerative disability benefits.
Boyd later took legal action and the courts backed the decision, saying the NFLPA Disability Board did nothing improper while evaluating Boyd's claim.
Boyd accuses the NFLPA of "doctor shopping" ---- finding a doctor who would give them the opinion they were seeking.
"That's why they had to send me to Baltimore," Boyd said. "It was doctor shopping, there's no doubt about it. They had to get somebody to say it was impossible."
Asked to comment on Boyd's case, NFLPA director of communications Carl Francis declined.
"We try not to make comments on individual cases," Francis said. "That would not be fair to the player or the process of people filing disability claims."
Ending the silence
Boyd never planned on being an outspoken opponent of the NFLPA. He loved playing football and emphasizes he has no issues with the Vikings. He rates playing for famed coach Bud Grant as one of his most cherished memories.
Going public was a heart-wrenching decision for Boyd.
As his life declined, he felt ashamed and didn't want his friends ---- let alone the public ---- to know the depths of his troubles and despair.
Little by little, Boyd became inspired to speak. A major turning point was hearing Webster's son, Garrett, talk about his father.
"When Mike Webster's son described the last few years of Webster's life and was saying Webster was so ashamed of how he was mentally and financially that he just shut himself off from old friends and teammates, I thought, 'That's exactly what I'm doing,' " Boyd said.
"I'm not going to let the NFL shame me into doing this anymore. The more people hear stories from me and other guys like me, the more guys will come out, and that will get the current players' attention, hopefully, and then things will change.
"They can't claim ignorance anymore. They had a honeymoon period, and that period is just about over now."
Contact staff writer Mike Sullivan at (760) 739-6645 or msullivan@nctimes.com.
A sampling of some former players who are dealing with post-football ailments:
Earl Campbell, RB, Oilers/Saints
Legendary Pro Football Hall of Famer ran over players with his bruising running style but is now plagued by chronic knee and back pain.
Harry Carson, LB, Giants
Suffers from post-concussion syndrome and implored the league and union to take better care of former players during his 2006 Hall of Fame induction speech.
Conrad Dobler, G, Cardinals
Three-time Pro Bowler who also played for the Saints and Bills has undergone 11 football-related surgeries and told HBO he ingests roughly 150 Vicodin a month to deal with knee pain.
John Mackey, TE, Colts
Hall of Famer who finished his career with the Chargers in 1972 suffers from dementia. The league's new 88 Plan, implemented to aid ex-players suffering from dementia, got its name from Mackey's uniform number.
Curt Marsh, OL, Raiders
Suffered career-ending ankle injury in 1987 and had his right foot and leg amputated in 1994 when a dozen surgeries failed to alleviate the pain.
Wilber Marshall, LB, Bears/Redskins
Three-time Pro Bowler who played with five NFL teams lives in constant pain due to spinal compression, bulging discs in the back, plus knee and shoulder issues.
Mel Renfro, CB, Cowboys
Hall of Famer deals with depressions stemming from multiple concussions suffered during his college and professional career.
Ralph Wenzel, OL, Steelers/Chargers
San Diego State product now lives in assisted-living facility in Annapolis, Md., with dementia and other cognitive issues stemming from concussions during his football career.
Richard Wood, LB, Buccaneers
College Football Hall of Famer from USC recently underwent major spinal surgery after dealing with back pain during nine-year career with Jets and Bucs.
Willie Wood, S, Packers
Hall of Famer from the famous Vince Lombardi Green Bay teams suffers from dementia and diabetes, as well as knee and back pain.