Why The Mike Webster Story Is So Important!!!

If you were an NFL fan during the late 1970s and early 1980s, you may have heard of Mike Webster.  If you were a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, then you no doubt heard of “Iron Mike.”  He is considered one of the top 100 players of all time (according to the NFL 100 Centennial Team) and widely viewed by many as the greatest center of all time.

His on-field accolades are impressive:

• Started every game in 10 straight seasons (only missed 4 in the first 16 seasons)
• Steelers’ Captain for 9 seasons
• 9 Career Pro Bowls (8 straight from 78′ to 85′)
• 5 first-team All-Pro selections
• Member of 75th Anniversary and 100th Centennial team (All-Decades team in the 1970s and 1980s)
• Played in 6 AFC Championship Games and won 4 Super Bowls with the Steelers
• Elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Class of 1997)

He blocked for Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and some of the other great Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s.  Although he spent all those years protecting these guys, it was what the guests from this week’s episode of The Football  History Dude call “his last play” that protected players the most. 

They consider this his best play because it led to the discovery of the diagnosis, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).  This was discovered by Dr. Bennet Omalu (a Pathologist in Pittsburgh) after Mike Webster died on September 24, 2002.  The discovery and subsequent story were documented in the movie starting Will Smith – Concussion.

This movie did help some people understand how the discovery of CTE came to be, but it did not spend a large amount of time breaking down the story of “patient zero,” Mike Webster.  This week’s guests set out to do just that, ultimately in an unorthodox way for a football story, with a play.  Dr. Randall Benson and Playwright Ross Howard join me for “The Mike Webster Story.”