Trying to Help NFL Alums Help Themselves
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Photos by Leonard Shapiro
Above, Kurt Pierce in his days with the Miami Dophins. Inset, in his days now as an orthodontist.
By Leonard Shapiro For Middleburg Life
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“I remember hitting Lawrence Taylor in college and putting him on his back,” Pierce recalled. “We both got up kind of woozy. Then I hit him again once in the Meadowlands and he says “is that you again, Pierce?’” Sadly, many retired players are still suffering in silence, and Pierce has seen some who come to alumni chapter meetings virtually living on a subsistence level. “We’ll have a catered meal before every meeting,” he said. “To some of these guys, that’s a very big deal.” Pierce said when he played at UVA and the NFL, “none of us really ever thought that getting hit in the head or getting knocked out would be any different than having a cut on your arm that would eventually heal up. To me, the parallel is when you started smoking cigarettes as a kid. Did we know that was a bad thing back then? We’re learning more about this concussion issue all the time, and it’s not good.” A Rockville native and Georgetown Prep graduate, Pierce moved his family to Middleburg because “we liked the country atmosphere, but we were still close enough to D.C. and so many fun things to do. It was just a real nice mix.” And now, he’d like to see more former players who need help get into the mix of those already taking advantage of April’s landmark billion-dollar-plus concussion settlement. “The idea is to spread awareness,” Pierce said. “There are a lot of people out there who can really benefit from this. We have to help them do it.” n 9:37 PM Page 1
September 2015
r. Kurt Pierce likes to tell people that when he signed on as an offensive lineman with the Miami Dolphins back in 1983, Coach Don Shula asked him to room with rookie quarterback Dan Marino, a party boy at the University of Pittsburgh who got serious enough as a pro to eventually become a first-ballot Hall of Famer. “They wanted someone to keep an eye on him,” Pierce said. “I was a center and he was a quarterback. Shula’s first job out of college was as a graduate assistant at Virginia, and I played at Virginia. So I guess it made sense.”
Marino actually did stay on the straight and narrow virtually right from the beginning of his career. And while Pierce didn’t make the Dolphins final roster, it turned out to be a truly propitious blessing because he eventually enrolled and completed dental school at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. Now an orthodontist, he and his family have lived in Middleburg since 2008, with a thriving practice with offices in Purcellville, Frederick and Germantown. Still, his roots in football, including stints with the Baltimore Colts and Buffalo Bills, also have sprouted in another direction, one he hopes will help many of his fellow players now suffering from the effects of so much mayhem on the field.
Over Labor Day weekend, Pierce hosted a party at his Middleburg farm with a guest list that included several former NFL players who live in the Washington area. Some, like Pierce, have become heavily involved in alumni chapters of the NFL Players Association. One of the main goals is to identify and reach out to former players who may be suffering from dementia, Alzheimers, Parkinsons and CTE (chronic trauma encephalopathy), a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In April, a federal judge approved a settlement on a class action suit filed against the NFL by over 5,000 former players. It will pay retired players as much as $5 million depending on their age and severity of their injury. And if a retiree is deceased or unable to pursue his claim, a family member may do so on his behalf. It also includes $75 million to fund a baseline assessment program, a comprehensive medical examination and follow-up benefits for all eligible retirees. According to Pierce, “all the alumni chapters have been directed to reach out to guys who may be embarrassed about it, or who just aren’t functional enough to get this kind of help. We want them to be plugged into the system. You don’t need to show causation. If you have the problem and you signed an NFL contract, you have the benefit, and it’s an unlimited time frame.” Pierce has been fortunate not to have any symptoms related to head trauma, though he has plenty of other mementos from his playing days—bad shoulders, degenerative discs and all Sept 2015 Middleburg Life Ad_Layout 1 8/24/15 manner of aches and pains.
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