December 2023: Tennessee Titans Icon Frank Wycheck planned to donate his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for study when he died.
A linebacker and running back as a kid, he played running back in college at Maryland and fullback in the NFL for Washington before he settled in as a tight end with the Houston Oilers and Tennessee Titans. He estimated he was part of 297,000 collisions from the start of his football life at 5 until he retired at 33 and that he suffered 25 concussions.
Despite migraines that he was sure were a result of concussions and blows to the head and issues with anxiety and depression — for which he took medication — he said he would not change his life in football. He would have liked more information but would have played even if commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his medical advisor, Elliot Pellman, “didn’t lie.”
“I don’t want this to be a pity party, ‘Oh poor Frank,'” he said. “I wouldn’t change anything in the world. I’ve had a blessed life, great opportunities to meet great people, raise my family and be able to take care of my family the way I could. I couldn’t do that without football. And it was the thing I had as a goal since I was 5 years old.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18631017/frank-wycheck-believes-cte-fears-onset-scary-symptoms.
