HAMILTON—Chris Walby, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame offensive lineman for 16 years with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and former football broadcaster, recalls once finding himself in the wrong huddle after taking a big hit.
“I couldn’t see where I was,” Walby recalled last in Hamilton at the Angelo Mosca fundraising event for Alzheimer’s, held on Aug. 26.
“I was blacked out. The next thing I knew I was standing in Hamilton’s huddle. Mike Campbell, the defensive tackle, kicked me in the ass and said, ‘Hey fat boy, you’re in the wrong huddle, get over there.’ It was crazy.”
Years ago, people would simply laugh at such situations. Today, however, much more is known about brain injuries.
Sport concussions have been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy — CTE — a degenerative brain disease that can cause dementia, depression and aggression.
CTE can only be diagnosed after death.
When Mosca was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s two weeks after his 78th birthday in February, his family and the CFL alumni got behind efforts to honour Mosca and shine a light on Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia.