ESPN Story on the 1988 Saints and how football took its toll

quote:

---

or years, Jakes has carried the weight of those four defensive teammates, all of whom died before the age of 50.

In all, 10 men from the list of 56 rostered players on the 1988 New Orleans Saints have died. Only one of them reached the age of 60. Many of the others, mostly now in their 60s, are coming to terms with their own mortality and a declining quality of life they attribute to football.

Waymer was the first to die, in the spring of 1993, of an irregular heartbeat caused by cocaine toxicity. He was 34. His funeral was packed with speechless young mourners.

Vaughan Johnson’s death in 2019 hit Jakes particularly hard. They were roommates for three years in New Orleans and had talked just a week earlier. VJ, who was 57, said he was doing fine, though he had multiple health issues and would later be confirmed to have Stage 3 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurodegenerative disease tied to football and other contact sports.

---

quote:

---

A handful of Johnson’s defensive mates, including Jakes, attended the funeral in Morehead City, North Carolina.

“You just don’t think things will happen at that young age,” Jakes said.

A year later, they lost linebacker James “Hitman” Haynes. The summer of 2022 brought more grief: Offensive tackle Daren Gilbert died at 58. A few months after, his wife, Alayna, emailed an ESPN reporter from her home outside Nashville. She was alarmed by the number of ’88 Saints who had died young.

“I’m writing to you because I have nowhere else to go,” she said.

Gilbert’s family had just donated his brain to Boston University’s Concussion Legacy Foundation, which later found that Daren had CTE.

Alayna Gilbert said that in addition to the teammates who had died, “The players who are surviving are suffering from countless chronic illnesses.”

---

quote:

---

Her email led ESPN to team with KFF, an independent health policy research, polling and news organization, on a survey of the 1,532 NFL players from 1988, including families for the 128 who were deceased at the time of the survey. More than a third of the players or their survivors participated in the lengthy survey, answering questions about not only their physical health but also their mental, financial and family well-being as they enter their senior years.

While the respondents reported experiencing pain, loneliness, depression, anxiety and disabilities at much higher rates than average U.S. men their age, roughly 90% said they’d play football again if given the chance. The finding held even among those who said football had negatively impacted their physical and mental health.

The ’88 Saints are a rough microcosm of the study. In dozens of interviews with ESPN, they chronicled numerous surgeries and multiple maladies that they live with every day.

---