**STEVE MACMILLAN? NO, STEVE MCMECHAN. THE “MONGO” WHO GAVE HIS BRAIN TO SCIENCE AND THEN DIED IN A COFFIN. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM HIM, A THANK YOU CARD?**
Okay, so Steve McMichael, a guy who played football in the 80s and was part of that legendary Bears defense that basically handed out Super Bowls like party favors — he’s dead now. Not from a tackle or a helmet-to-helmet collision, but from ALS. And now his brain has been found to have CTE. You know what this means? It means someone who played football for 12 years in the NFL and then went on to wrestle for a while is now being used as a cautionary tale about how *stupid* we are as a society.
Let me get this straight: McMichael was a beast. A two-time All-Pro, 92.5 sacks, played in 191 consecutive games, and made the Hall of Fame — all that before he was even 30. He had to have been taking hits like it was a Tuesday. But instead of just letting him live out his life as a legend, we now get to read about how his brain was a ticking time bomb. And not only did he die from ALS, which is already brutal enough, but the posthumous diagnosis shows that CTE might be the final punchline in this tragic joke.
You know what’s wild? This isn’t even *new* news anymore. We’ve known for years that football is a brain-battering sport, and now we have a Hall of Famer who literally gave his brain to science so people like me can write columns about how bad it is. But here’s the real kicker: he didn’t just give his brain — he *knew* what was coming*. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2021, and then later, they found CTE in his brain after death. So this isn’t some random NFL player who got lucky or unlucky. This is a guy who knew the risks, fought through it, and then still gave back to the very system that destroyed him.
And what’s up with all the *stats*? “NFL players are four times more likely to develop ALS than other men.” That sounds like someone trying to sound scientific while avoiding the real question: why is football killing people? You can’t just say, “Well, statistically speaking…” when your sport is literally making people die. It’s not like we’re talking about a little-known disease that affects 1 in 100,000. We’re talking about something that is now so common among NFL players that they have to build a brain bank just to study it.
McMichael wasn’t the first. He was one of many — and I mean *many* — former NFL players who’ve come forward with CTE or ALS diagnoses. But he’s not even the most famous. You know who is? Aaron Hernandez. Oh, right, he also committed murder before dying of suicide. So it’s almost like there’s a whole menu of bad outcomes for people who play football at a high level.
But wait — here’s a thought: what if we stopped *pretending* that football isn’t dangerous? What if we just said, “Yeah, this sport is killing our athletes, and we need to fix it”? But no, instead, we have ESPN analysts on TV saying things like, “Well, statistically speaking, the risk of CTE is low for most players,” while ignoring the fact that *most* players are not Hall of Famers. They’re not getting paid millions of dollars. They’re the ones who don’t make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They’re the guys who played in the NFL and then got sick, or worse — died.
And here’s the thing: even if you *do* make it into the Hall of Fame, like McMichael did, your legacy is now stained by the very sport that made you a legend. You can’t just be remembered for sacks and Super Bowls anymore. Now, people will remember how you *died*. That’s not cool.
You know what really gets me? The NFL has known about this stuff for years. They’ve had studies, they’ve had lawsuits, they’ve had players coming forward with stories of concussions that were ignored or downplayed. And yet — and yet — we still let them play the game like it’s just a normal sport. Like it’s not a literal brain-battering activity.
I mean, come on. You have to be *nuts* to think that putting your head in front of other people’s heads 20 times a game is safe. Even if you don’t get knocked out — even if you don’t feel the hit — your brain is still getting jostled around like it’s in a blender.
And now we have McMichael, who was known as “Mongo” and “Ming The Merciless,” giving his brain to science after dying from ALS. That’s not just brave — that’s *selfless*. He knew what was coming and still decided to help others by donating the one thing he couldn’t take with him.
But here’s the real question: why is this happening so often? Why are so many NFL players ending up with CTE or ALS? Is it because they’re just bad luck, or is there something more systemic at play?
Let me be clear: I’m not saying that every football player will end up like McMichael. But what *is* true is that the risk is real, and it’s growing. And yet, instead of doing anything about it — like changing the rules, making helmets safer, or even just talking about it more honestly — we still pretend like this isn’t a problem.
And that’s why I’m so damn tired of people who say things like, “Well, statistically speaking…” when they should be saying, “We need to stop doing this.” Because *statistically* is not the same as *humanly*. You can’t just quantify the damage done to human lives with numbers. That’s cold. That’s not what you do when someone dies from a disease caused by a sport.
McMichael was a legend. He was tough, he was strong, and he was one of the best ever to play the game. But now, all we have is his brain in a jar somewhere, being studied for something that might never be fully understood. And that’s not a legacy I want to leave behind — but I guess it’s what we’ve got.
So next time you see an NFL player take a hit and keep playing, don’t just cheer. Think about the fact that he might have CTE already. Think about the fact that he could be the next McMichael. Because if this keeps happening — if we let this continue — then all of us are going to end up with the same fate.
But here’s what I want you to ask yourself: when was the last time you saw a football player get *punished* for playing the game? When was the last time someone got *called out* for putting their brain on the line? Or is it just easier to pretend that this isn’t happening?
Because if we keep pretending, then McMichael’s legacy — and all those other players who’ve died from CTE or ALS — will be nothing more than a footnote in an NFL season. And I can tell you right now: that’s not what any of them wanted.
So next time someone says, “Well, statistically speaking…” you know what to do? You say, “Statistically speaking, Steve McMichael died from ALS and had CTE after playing football for 12 years. So maybe we should stop pretending this is okay.” And then you ask yourself: are we going to be the ones who finally make a change — or just sit back and let it keep happening?
Because if we don’t do something, then McMichael won’t be the last one. He’ll be the first.
And that’s not a legacy I want any of us to have.
