Former NFL Star Mark Bavaro Discloses Life-Threatening Battle With Life

Former New York Giants tight end Mark Bavaro, a two-time Super Bowl winner, recently discussed his struggle with long-term Covid in a passage from Gary Myers’ book, “Once A Giant.” The passage describes Bavaro’s battle with worry, paranoia, lightheadedness, foggy vision, and headaches, which led to his suicidal thoughts.

Former NFL Star Mark Bavaro Discloses Life-Threatening Battle With Life

North of Boston, Mark Bavaro’s home embodies all that is charming about New England. Although he has a room filled with football memorabilia, everything is subtle and fits his attitude. Nothing about him, in fact, gives away the fact that he is a two-time Super Bowl winner and the finest tight end in New York Giants history due to his extreme physicality.

You ought to consider that, he replied. “You’re thinking, ‘What the f-k?'” How long can you wait on the roof of a burning building before jumping off? You learn a lot about other individuals and the struggles they face.

In 1986, on the Giants’ way to winning the Super Bowl XXI at Candlestick Park, this seemingly indestructible former All-Pro, who represented the spirit of working-class New Yorkers during his playing days, ran over and dragged half the 49ers defense on an inspirational run-after-the-catch, was overcome by a disease that was unfamiliar even to the pain-ridden fraternity of former football players.

In his lowest hour, he reasoned that death had to be preferable than the constant upheaval that had  been attacked by Covid. And he had to wonder whether he had been made more vulnerable by all the hits to the head he sustained playing football.

Bavaro had rows of pharmaceutical bottles on his kitchen island and in his cabinets because his symptoms were so bothersome. He had enough medication to treat a whole football team. Before physicians discovered the ideal drug combination to calm him down, he endured for six months.

This tough-as-nails football player, who during his playing career represented the heart of working-class New Yorkers, was overcome by a sickness that even the pain-riddled fraternity of former football players had never heard of.

All three of Duerson, Waters, and Seau received CTE diagnoses. A postmortem diagnosis is the only option. Their families donated their brains for use in CTE research and assessment after they all committed suicide. Bavaro struggled to understand it. Could things go so terrible that you decide to abandon your spouses, kids, grandkids, parents, and friends?

Bavaro never planned how to end his life, but “you think of ways. How does one die?” he said. “I was praying for a heart attack.”

Bavaro made the intentional decision to endure his hardships in order to support his adult children and wife Susan. He had to decide whether to listen to his intellectual or his emotional side.

“I had to stick to my intellectual side and say, ‘Your life is good,'” he said. “Before I got sick, I was happy as a clam playing golf and hanging out. I was not making a ton of money but was making enough to get by. The kids were great, the wife’s great, everything was great. There was nothing to be depressed about.”

 

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