Former NFL player declines nomination to Hall of Fame
Former New York Giants linebacker Corey Widmer has declined an invitation into the Montana Football Hall of Fame because he says the sport “destroyed my life.”
Widmer said he fears he suffers from CTE after suffering numerous concussions during his career. He also cites depression, memory loss and mood swings, and says his thumb has started twitching from decades of playing the game.
Widmer was due to be enshrined into the Montana Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, but he withdrew his name.
“I think if I’d be putting that [Hall of Fame] jacket on right now I’d probably puke,” Widmer told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “I don’t think I’d be able to shake a hand. And that’s why I’m doing it this way; I don’t want to make some political statement right in the middle of their party and take advantage of some very nice people.
“I can’t sit up there and tell interesting stories and how cool it is — the camaraderie, the fame, things like that — and have somebody else say, ‘Well, if that local kid can do it, so can I.’ It just doesn’t work that easy. …
“I’d never want to give somebody the impression that football is safe and that the injuries are short term. They’re not. I’m proof of that.”
Widmer played with the Giants from 1992 to 1999 and was the team’s starting middle linebacker those last four seasons.
He was a seventh-round pick out of Montana State and also attended Bozeman High School in the state.
Widmer had planned on staying quiet about his opinions on football until he read news about a lawsuit filed by the family of a 16-year-old in Montana. Robert Back suffered a concussion during a game in 2014 and then collapsed after playing the next weekend. He ended up a quadriplegic and unable to speak.
“That was the moment that made me understand. … I just got this overwhelming guilt, anxiety and was not sleeping,” Widmer said. “Every day I was waking up thinking about this.”
He is now outspoken in urging parents to delay their kids’ participation in tackle football, arguing that letting a kid before high school age play tackle football equates to child endangerment.
Widmer has spoken to parents in graphic terms about what happens to blood vessels in the brain when helmets are crashed.
“That is the way I talk to the mother,” he said. “She sits back there with her eyes open, and there’s no way the husband is going to be able to veto her vote. She turns into the super-president of the house after I talk to her about this.”
The Montana Football Hall of Fame ceremony went on without Widmer, and eight other individuals were enshrined: Doug Betters, Rocky Klever, Guy Bingham, Sam McCullum, Casey Fitzsimmons, Sam Jankovich, Terry Dillon and Bill Glennon.
Widmer could have joined the likes of NFL Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud and two-time national championship-winning coach Dennis Erickson in the Hall, but he has no regrets.
“I’m 49 years old, depressed to the nth degree, but have a lot of money … and some people might say it’s still worth it. I just tell them to watch what they wish for,” Widmer said.
“If someone could’ve explained all of this to me when I was 14, I would’ve given it all back in a heartbeat. I would’ve wished for something else.”
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