A player involved in one of the most iconic plays in NFL history says he’s part of the darkest chapter in NFL history.
Frank Wycheck, who threw the lateral that would become “The Music City Miracle,” is “sure” he has CTE, the degenerative brain disease that leaves athletes a shell of their former selves.
Wycheck, 45, was a steady professional tight end from 1993-03, most notably with the Tennessee Titans, with whom he was a three-time Pro Bowler.
The 6-foot-3 force who threw his 250-pound body around throughout much of his life said these days, his mind is waning.
“Migraine headaches, being depressed. Just not wanting to socialize,” said Wycheck, describing his post-football life in an interview published Monday by Fox 17 in Nashville. “I’ll go into a room and forget why I went there.”
He traces the cause of his nightmare to more than a quarter of a million blows to the head, beginning when he was just a child.
“From I was 5 until I was done at 33, I added up to 297,000 collisions,” he said about his time on the football field. “Hits to the head. I was a linebacker and I was a running back, so I was hitting with my head every single time.”
Wycheck totaled 505 catches for more than 5,000 yards in his pro career, but his biggest moment was a toss. In the wild-card round of the 1999 playoffs against the Bills, the lumbering big man threw across the field on a last-minute kickoff return, lateraling to Kevin Dyson, who would run the rest of the way for a stunning touchdown.
While Wycheck said he “wouldn’t change a thing” about his life, he is worried about his health — there is no known treatment for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which only can be diagnosed post-mortem — and angry at the league for “lying” about the condition. He has seen contemporaries such as Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau commit suicide while suffering from the disease. As of November 2016, 90 of 94 brains of former football players that were tested turned up positive.
“Junior Seau, what caused him one day to put a shotgun to his chest and pull the trigger?” said Wycheck, who’s a color analyst for Titans radio. “As former players, you’re like, ‘When is that going to happen to me?’ Is there a special pill I can take? Do I eat carrots? What do I do to prevent perhaps what is inevitable? That’s a stress that is on your mind daily.”
Wycheck is part of the $1 billion concussion lawsuit against the NFL. He scoffs at the notion he’s looking for a handout, citing that doctors paid by the league repeatedly denied any link between playing football and long-term brain injury.
“Everyone thought we were crying about our injuries, woe is me,” he said. “Why did we even play? But the NFL knew. The main NFL doctor came out and said that there isn’t any long-term brain damage when you play football, so he basically lied and hid a lot of that information.”
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