DeLamielleure, forgetfulness and a 'short fuse'

For Browns Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure, forgetfulness and a 'short fuse' are concussions' lingering toll'

Joe DeLamielleure can't recall which game it was, but as a hard-charging guard for the Buffalo Bills in the 1970s, he took a shot to the head that was so hard, it knocked him back to his childhood.

"I grew up in Detroit," says DeLamielleure, 61. "My dad had a bar right across from General Motors." As one of 10 kids, "we grew up in the bar. We worked the bar from 7 in the morning to 2:30 at night, seven days a week."

Young Joe was a football prodigy. His sister Marlene made his first pair of cleats by hammering nails through the soles of a pair of Oxfords. He was a high school star, an All-American at Michigan State, a first-round draft pick by the Bills in 1973.

A member of the "Electric Company," the famed offensive line that "turned loose the Juice," opening the holes that allowed running back O.J. Simpson to set NFL rushing and touchdown records.

So there's a game in Buffalo, and the Electric Company's lineman gets his lights shut off. "I got knocked out," DeLamielleure says. "I don't even remember getting to the bench. They gave me smelling salts, and I actually thought I was in my dad's bar, because we used to clean the bar with ammonia. For a split second, I thought, 'Damn, where's the bucket?'

"They put me right back in the game. They ask you, 'Are you ready to go back in?' You're a competitive athlete. You're 22 years old. Nobody knew what was going on. Of course you go back in."

DeLamielleure always did. In his 13-year career with the Bills and the Cleveland Browns, he played in 185 consecutive games, a phenomenal record of endurance. In one of those games, against the 49ers, "I cracked Fred Dean's sternum, broke Dwaine Board's shoulder, and broke another guy's rib. I broke three guys' bones on a short trap block, and I hit 'em with my head."

Repeated collisions over the years left two permanent divots in his forehead from the bolts in his helmet. "I bled every game for two years," he says. "Some of the football card [photos] I wore a bandana" to hide the wounds.

DeLamielleure contends he is paying a severe price for that toughness, and the repeated head blows he endured.

He's lost 60 percent of the hearing in his left ear, a result of opposing linemen, most of them right-handed, slapping his helmet.

He says he has attention, memory and anger problems, all symptoms of repeated brain injury. "I lose my wallet three or four times a day," DeLamielleure says. "' I talk extremely fast, which I never did. Then you get a short fuse. Little things [set] you off. And it's constant. I was never that impulsive.

"My wife's smart. We've known each other since we were 2 or 3 years old. She goes, 'What are you, an idiot? Just cool it. There's no need to act like that.' She's a pediatric nurse. She's worried."

DeLamielleure still keeps an active schedule. He runs a Charlotte, N.C., business, Joe D Bands, that markets exercise stretch bands and other fitness products. He gives motivational speeches and works as a consultant for a casino. He tries to stay in good physical shape.

"I'm walking, and luckily, I can think," he says. "I work out hard. I'm like an old hinge – I keep opening and shutting so it doesn't rust up." As a fundraiser for an orphanage, "two years ago I rode a bicycle from Michigan to Mexico, 2,000 miles with my college roommates."

Even before the concussion issue arose, DeLamielleure was an outspoken critic of the NFL and the players' union for their treatment of retirees, especially regarding pension issues for older ex-players. His own monthly pension payment is about $2,100 a month before taxes. "That's for 13 years in the league and being in the Hall of Fame," he says. DeLamielleure knows others who collect much less.

"We were the guinea pigs for this league to be what it is today," he says. "And they don't want to take care of you. We're not saying give us a hundred grand a year. We need a livable pension and they will not do it."

DeLamielleure says the decision to join former players' lawsuits against the league regarding concussion-related injuries was not difficult.

The NFL "is the only league in the world where Hall of Famers are suing the league and the [players'] union," he says. "Why? Everybody sues everybody all the time. It's ridiculous. But they're not going to help unless you take them to court.

"I was totally into football. I used to go to camp early. I loved playing. I was addicted to it. Now I won't let my grandchildren play it. I have five grandsons, and I tell my daughters, 'Don't even think about it. Over my dead body those kids will play football until they clean it up.'"

(source Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Image: Mark Duncan / Associated Press

Posted by Necesitamos Mas Football on 4:24 p. m.. Filed under concussion , Joe DeLamielleure , noticias . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0