Former NFL player Tim Shaw is suffering from ALS at the age of 31, and he wonders if football could have played a part in causing him to develop the disorder. But even if it did, Shaw says he’s glad he played.
“I don’t blame football at all,” Shaw told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “No regrets about how I played or anything like that. The game has given me so much. It’s given me so much opportunity, so much experience. Relationships. It’s taught me a million lessons. It’s really helped make me who I am.”
Shaw does believe, however, that it’s incumbent on the NFL to do the research to determine whether playing football makes players more likely to develop ALS.
“I have no idea [what role football played],” Shaw said. “I want to know. I want the current players and people who put their kids in football, I want them to know whether ALS is a possible side effect of football, so I think research needs to be done. I think the NFL needs to step up and do some fund-raising for head trauma. Maybe it’s too close to home for them, but they need to step up and say, ‘OK, let’s do head trauma awareness month maybe instead of breast cancer awareness.’ Let’s do something that makes sense for the game of football. And what a powerful vehicle that would be to raise funds.”
Shaw is doing his part to raise awareness. And he’s right that the NFL could and should do more.
