Hall of Fame running back and Southern University coach Marshall Faulk has disclosed that he has Parkinson’s disease.
Via Jack Baer of Yahoo Sports, Faulk revealed the diagnosis in an appearance on the Caring Neurologist podcast.
“I get a physical twice a year,” Faulk said. “I’m a little anal about my health. I literally asked my doctor because I noticed it as I was playing golf. I noticed the rigidity in my hand after I play a lot or practice a lot, I thought it was just normal nerves when putting and stuff like that. But it started to be times where I wasn’t playing — I mean, where I was playing, but I wasn’t in a match, and it would still do that.
“I was like, ‘Wow, is that something? Is that normal?’ And the doctor was like, ‘You need to go get checked. You need to go have X, Y and Z done.’”
Faulk, a former NFL MVP, two-time NFL Offensive Player of the Year, three-time first-team All-Pro, and seven-time Pro Bowler, has been receiving treatment and taking medication.
“Since I’ve started on the medication, I don’t really have a lot of issues,” Faulk said. “I might sleep a little more. . . . Other than that, the rigidity in my hands, I still have that. Can’t say that it’s gotten worse. The little tremors that I get, they are what they are. I just pay attention to my gait, how I walk, when I’m working out, my ability to balance. It’s still where it is.
“I don’t look at it as something that’s terminal. It’s like, ‘Hey, you get to live with this.’ There’s far worse things out there.”
There’s a known link between Parkinson’s disease and football. It’s one of the specific conditions that make a player who retired prior to the final settlement of the concussion class action automatically eligible for payment.