For a generation of football fans, Irv Cross was at once a pioneer and a familiar face -- a two-time All-Pro cornerback for the Eagles during the 1960s, a panelist on CBS’s The NFL Today during the 1970s and ‘80s, the first Black man to co-host a sports program on a national television network. As of Tuesday, he is the latest member of a grim fraternity, another statistic that testifies to the sport’s cost to the men who played it.
On the second anniversary of Cross’s death, at 81, his family gave Boston University permission to reveal that he had suffered from the severest form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the brain disease that has been found in recent years to have afflicted hundreds of former NFL players.Cross and his family had agreed, before his death, to donate his brain to the university’s CTE Center and Brain Bank.
Cross suffered from mild cognitive impairment while he was alive, McKee said. The disease’s other symptoms include loss of memory and motor function and changes in behavior and mood.“Brain tissue analysis is the quickest path to discover ways to diagnose CTE during life and develop effective treatments,” McKee said. “Through his brain donation, Mr.
A native of Hammond, Ind., and a seventh-round draft pick out of Northwestern in 1961, Cross spent nine years in the NFL, six of them with the Eagles. He was named an All-Pro after the 1964 and ‘65 seasons and finished his career with 22 interceptions. He worked for CBS from 1971 to 1994, and he was the 2009 winner of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television award.
Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: wsfa12news - 🏆 338. / 59 Read more »
Source: CBSNews - 🏆 87. / 68 Read more »
Source: WTVYNews4 - 🏆 590. / 51 Read more »