This Interview on WIP Yesterday with Fred McCrary Was Outstanding

One day after the NFL admitted there was a correlation between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), former Eagle Fred McCrary joined The Josh Innes Show on WIP and talked about dealing with CTE after his playing days.

McCrary was drafted by the Eagles in 1995 and was released after one season. He went on to play football until 2007. And during his interview with Innes and former teammate, Hollis Thomas, McCrary pulled back the curtain on the stigma of CTE and said that he absolutely has the disease, despite not saying he was diagnosed with it.

Here are some highlights of the interview:

• He had his car stolen in North Philly and the guys who stole his car picked up the car phone when he called them.
• He deals with chronic headaches, memory loss, insomnia and temper problems.
• Left his bag on a plane three different times. Left his bag in a restaurant. Went golfing and forgot his golf clubs. Some very scary things.
• Had symptoms when he was playing but refused to go to the hospital.
• He’s had over 200 concussions during his career, in his estimation.
• Pressure from teammates led him to enter games when he clearly had a concussion.
• He’s contemplated suicide, especially due to his headaches.
• He wants to be an NFL referee.
• He would do it all over again if he could, but he’d “be smarter” about it.
• A lot more. Listen to the interview.

Listen to a excerpt of McCrary talking about his symptoms below. Listen to the entire interview here. [Note: It’s about 12 minutes into the 5 P.M. hour from Tuesday.]

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/252101110″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]