Recently I watched an episode of the television show HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. One of the featured stories was about a former New Orleans Saints player named Steve Gleason. I consider myself a pretty staunch Saints fan, but I must confess that his name did not immediately resonate with me. Although he was an eight year NFL veteran, playing all of those years in New Orleans, he was a special teams player. As such, he was not a headliner…until he starred in what is arguably the greatest play in Saint’s history.
It was September 25, 2006 – the Saints’ first home game since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. In the 2005 season, the Saints had split home games between Baton Rouge and San Antonio. There were rumblings that New Orleans would no longer have a football team thanks to the storm. The comeback to the Dome in 2006 was much more than a team returning home from an exodus period – it was a sign to the country that New Orleans was on its way back as a city. The Saints were playing their perennial division foe, the Atlanta Falcons.
On that night, it was a long haired special teams player that became a cult hero for Saints fans. Steve Gleason was etched into Saints history forever when he blocked a punt in the first two minutes of the game. Gleason’s block, recovered by Curtis Deloatch in the end zone, produced a roar not just in New Orleans but around the nation. The blocked punt happened so early in the game, it was clearly a divine sign that the Saints, and New Orleans, were on their way back. New Orleans went on to win that Monday Night game against Atlanta and Gleason’s block became the signature play. If one wants to connect the dots in a big picture sort of way, the Saints’ Super Bowl journey began with Gleason’s blocked punt.
Gleason retired from professional football in 2008, but he remained in New Orleans, a city he had grown to love. He started several businesses, enrolled in Tulane and began working toward an MBA degree, fell in love and married a New Orleans lady, Michel Varisco. His “second life” seemed to hold nothing but promise. Then in 2010 he began to experience uncontrollable muscular spasms. Ultimately that led him to seek medical advice. After numerous tests he received a dreadful diagnosis. He was suffering with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
ALS is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Nerve cells (neurons) waste away or die, and can no longer send messages to muscles. This eventually leads to muscle weakening, twitching, and an inability to move the arms, legs, and body. The condition slowly gets worse. When the muscles in the chest area stop working, it becomes hard or impossible to breathe on one’s own. Adding to the terrible nature of this incurable and fatal disease is that ALS does not affect the senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch) or a person’s ability to think or reason. As one’s body deteriorates you remain fully aware of what is happening to you.
For someone who dedicated his life to athletic endeavors and with so much of his life seemingly ahead of him, it would be understandable if Steve would feel cheated; that what has been handed to him is grossly unfair. It would be understandable, but by Steve Gleason’s way of thinking, that would be wrong. Here, in his own words, is Steve’s post-ALS diagnosis philosophy:
“As someone who’s lost most of his physical abilities over the past twenty months, I can tell you that the anticipation of loss is worse than the actual loss itself…I am hoping not to be fantastically optimistic but to be realistic and, possibly, encouraging.
In January, 2011 I was losing the ability to run. At the time, I was so dreading that loss. I wasn’t sure what I would do if I could no longer run. When it finally happened, I was forced to search myself for new avenues of joy. You see, I love to run. Not only that, I was really, really good at it.
But, new joyful avenues have emerged. Writing. Photography. Film.
It has not been easy. I have needed a lot of support. We’ve had to be very creative…And the losses continue to mount. Walking. Playing guitar. Typing. But with each loss we have worked to find a beautiful replacement. To the point where it feels less like loss and more like gain.
It would be easy to think that none of this seems fair; that life is not fair. News flash: life IS fair. It’s impartial to you, me and others. But, in my opinion, the impartial nature of this life is what makes it so awesome, and every moment spent dwelling on the “injustice” is a moment of loss.
We all have the choice of which role we will play in life. Victim or hero?
Steve Gleason is no victim. He IS a hero, not just a football hero, but a life hero. Since his diagnosis, he has started a foundation, Team Gleason, which provides extraordinary experiences for ALS patients while at the same time raising awareness about the disease. He takes other ALS patients on week long canoe trips in the western wilderness. He is currently exploring the possibility of a climbing expedition to the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington, his home state, this fall. He parachuted from an airplane to celebrate the first anniversary of his diagnosis. And he and his wife have created a beautiful child.
In Steve’s mind, there is no room in his life for bitterness.
“It’s easy to start questioning whether God has this plan and why the plan would include me getting diagnosed with this disease…And that’s when you can start why-ing yourself to death. More than that, I’ve thought, what does this mean, how does this help me fulfill my purpose in life? If we have a purpose in life beyond being a cog in the human machine, mine is to help inspire people and that’s pretty cool. I would like to motivate the world.”
If someone facing this type of challenge can approach it with such courage, optimism, faith, and indomitable determination, why is it that we so often allow burdens that are so much lighter to stifle our spirit? Steve Gleason is and should be an example to us all that, rather than focusing on what we can’t do or what limitations we suffer or what we’ve lost, we should instead focus on what we can do, what possibilities we might yet strive for, and what victories we have yet to win.
When he was diagnosed, Steve promised his wife, Michel to smile and laugh and cry and love for every breath that remains in his body. He has remained true to that promise. Steve Gleason is committed to the ideal that in life, no matter what limitations, challenges or setbacks may come his way, there will be no white flag of surrender.
“I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.” – Helen Keller
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacque