Steve Gleason Diagnosed With ALS

This is DP's uncle with a special one-time post.

People in Boston will always have a soft spot for Dave Roberts. If all Dave Roberts ever did for the Red Sox was steal that base against the Yankees in game four of the 2004 ALCS he would still be considered a sports hero in Boston. Multiply what Boston feels about Roberts times ten and you might begin to understand what Steve Gleason means to the city of New Orleans.

Steve Gleason was a special teams player for the Saints. In the very emotional first game at the Superdome after hurricane Katrina Steve blocked a punt resulting in a touchdown against the rival Falcons leading to a victory for the long suffering Saints. People in New Orleans see that as the first step toward their Super Bowl win three years later.

I met Steve at a music festival in 2007. I was at the festival with Steve's future wife's cousin. We ran into Steve and his then girlfriend. The cousins went off to have their private cousin conversation for a while leaving Steve and I to talk. I'd heard that my friend's cousin was dating a Saint's player but this guy I was talking with didn't look like a pro football player. In fact he looked to me kind of like Chris Pontious of Jack Ass. He asked me what I did for work and I asked him the same, he said he played for the Saints. I then figured out who I was talking with. I don't recall a lot of detail of that conversation between two drunk guys other than two things. One was that he thought it was hilarious that my nephew DP had a snake named Devery Henderson and the other was that he was a really nice guy.

In a lot of ways New Orleans is like a small town. Living here, chances are you know somebody who knows just about anyone in town. Last winter I learned what the world found out Sunday. Steve has Lou Gerhig's Disease/ALS. Please read more about this great guy, and if you can, do what you can to help.

This is the story about Steve's condition:

http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2011/09/new_orleans_saints_cult_hero_s.html

This is Steve's webiste:

http://www.team-gleason.com/

I know that there is a bigger issue here as it relates to professional athletes and ALS, but this is something that personally impacts some of my very closest friends. Even though I've known about this for a while it almost didn't seem real until now.

Also... When I heard the news about Steve's condition I told only two people. One was Steve's wife's cousin who hadn't heard yet and the other was DP. I want to thank DP and the other folks at Dueling Couches for keeping this under their hats and respecting Steve's wishes not to make it public until now.