We’ve asked all about how he keeps awesome body rolling along, and have often expanded into his altruistic efforts off the field. Now, he’s taken the latter a step further. Steve Weatherford is going to give us a look at just how fit his brain is too. The Giants kicker went on Fox and Friends this week, along with former Seahawks wideout Sidney Rice, to announce their decisions to donate their brains to concussion studies. Rice spoke first, recalling how he got his first concussion when he was only eight years old.
“I was going around the edge and hit a kid head-on. It was the first time I’d ever seen stars aside from in the cartoon shows,” Rice said.
That’s the life for an offensive player, in football. Wide receivers and quarterbacks are targets that are often defenseless to the savage hits that come their way on a daily basis. It’s a different game for kickers who are considerably more sheltered on the field. Regardless, Weatherford said he feels his brain will be a valuable addition in the lab — it’s all about diversity.
“I haven’t had a lot of concussions, I think I’ve had two over the course of [my career],” Weatherford said. “I’m in it more to help generations after us. You’ll study [Rice’s] brain in comparison to my brain. Just because you haven’t had a lot of traumatic head injuries doesn’t mean that they won’t need your brain to study. To me, it’s about overall health right now but you want to think about the future and pay it forward.”
