Profile in Courage: O.J. Brigance

According to baseball great Jackie Robinson, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Today, we honor someone whose life has had a tremendous impact on other lives, on and off the football field – O.J. Brigance, who is celebrating his 43^rd birthday.

In 1999, the Miami Dolphins selected O.J. as the team’s recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award, recognizing his comeback from a severe back injury.  While they acknowledged and appreciated his effort to overcome the injury, O.J.’s Dolphins teammates had no idea just how much courage their teammate would exhibit in the years to come. 

With the CFL’s B.C. Lions, Brigance recorded 20 sacks and earned All-Conference honors in 1993. In 1995, he was a CFL All-Star with the Baltimore Stallions during their Grey Cup championship season. He captained the Miami Dolphins during two of his four seasons with the team and was an integral part of the Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl XXXV championship team.

As Director of Player Development for the Baltimore Ravens – a position he has held since 2004 – Brigance helps players prepare for and transition to successful careers off the field. His efforts were recognized by the NFL with its Best Overall Player Development Program Award in 2005 and 2006, the Most Outstanding Internship Program Award in 2005, and the Outstanding Continuing Education Program Award in 2007.

In May 2007, O.J. Brigance was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease – a progressive neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure. Although ALS has robbed O.J. of much in the last five years, it did not – it could not – take away his courage.

In May 2012, at Rice University’s 2012 Laureate Dinner, where he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award, O.J. told a distinguished audience of alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the university, “My greatest accomplishment has been taking this personal challenge of battling ALS and using it to impact the world around me.”

And impact the world, he has.

O.J. and his wife Chanda founded the Brigance Brigade Foundation, which raises funds to help ALS patients access to treatment, medications, equipment and support services. Through the foundation, the Brigances partner with and support The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. In fact, O.J. and Chanda have served as honorary chairs of the Packard Center’s annual Fiesta 5K, which raises funds for research to find a cure.

“Life’s adversities serve a dual purpose,” O.J. said at Rice. “To refine us personally and to give us experiential knowledge in serving others who may be walking the same journey. Our adversity is never just for us, but to bless others around us.”

Researchers at Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy estimate that retired NFL players are at least eight times more likely to be diagnosed with ALS than the general adult male population. The CSTE researchers also discovered a link between repetitive head trauma and a disease similar to ALS.

 That’s why Fourth & Goal opposes bounties. That’s why we support the Commissioner’s measures to improve player safety. That’s why we recognize and, quite frankly, appreciate the Commissioner’s efforts to increase benefits for former players. That’s why we support the Brigance Brigade and The Robert Packard Center for ALS.

One more quote from the man himself: “Through the triumphs there has come a greater confidence and through the challenges has come a greater clarity of purpose.”

That’s why we’re proud to know O.J. Brigance.

Happy Birthday, O.J. – and thank you.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego Chargers, 1982-1983

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Steve Sabol

Thanks to Steve Sabol and his father Ed, we grew up watching the highlights of those who came before us — the makers of the game — on NFL Films. Later, Steve captured the receptions, the tackles, the interceptions, the rushes, the touchdowns, and the field goals that defined our own careers in the NFL.

Like his father before him, Steve Sabol brought NFL football into our homes and the homes of countless football fans across the nation. He carried NFL football into non-NFL cities and helped expand NFL teams’ fan base well beyond their geographical borders. Perhaps as much as any one player, coach or executive, his contribution to the NFL and to the game of football had an impact far beyond the confines of the stadium.

Steve Sabol, who died yesterday at age 69, often quoted his father, “Tell me a fact, and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth, and I believe. But tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever.” Through the stories he told in NFL Films, Steve ensured that future generations of football fans would know – and appreciate – what past generations of NFL players did to build the game and the league. He left a legacy that is his – and ours.

May he rest in peace.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego Chargers, 1982-1983

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Art Modell

It’s a sad day in Baltimore, at the NFL offices in New York, and in NFL cities across the country. One of the league’s stalwarts – Art Modell – passed away early this morning.

Art Modell was described as controversial. We’d describe him as a visionary. Long before he made the difficult, even heartbreaking, decision to move the Cleveland Browns team to Baltimore, he was among the first to recognize and embrace the impact television could – and did – have on NFL football. Along with Baltimore Colts’ owner Carroll Rosenbloom and Pittsburgh Steelers’ owner Art Rooney, Modell agreed to move his Cleveland Browns’ team to the American Football Conference in 1970, following the merger of the NFL and AFL.

Even his most controversial decision – to move his franchise – left the Browns’ history and heritage in Cleveland and brought an NFL team to football-starved Baltimore, which had lost its own team some 12 years earlier. Today, for example, thanks to Art Modell’s vision, Jim Brown is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Cleveland Brown – not a Baltimore Brown.

We will remember him as a good and decent man who contributed greatly to the NFL, to Baltimore and Cleveland, to the communities in which he lived, to the charities in which he believed, and – perhaps most of all – to the active and retired players whom he loved, for whom he showed compassion and whom he treated as his family. He truly embraced the league’s past, present and future.

We deeply regret that neither Art nor his wife Pat lived long enough to see him enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego, 1982-1983

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Detroit Lions’ Gail Cogdill Needs Your Help

My name is Kristen (Cogdill) Dunlap and I’m the oldest daughter of former Detroit Lion great Gail Cogdill (1960-1970). On behalf of the Cogdill family I’m reaching out to you today to ask you for your financial support in helping my father battle a life threatening heart condition. His heart condition was brought on by years of playing professional football during an era when players had no one looking out for their physical or financial best interests.


His last hope for survival is adult stem cell therapy. This is the same procedure that many current and former professional athletes are using to help recover from injury and have experienced life changing results. Except for his heart, my dad is in great shape which makes him the prime candidate for this procedure.

Without your support he may have less than 12 months to live. We ask that you help my dad and our family fight this battle as we are not prepared to lose him over an obstacle of money. It‘s not easy to ask for help, as we all have our own causes, but any size donation would be greatly appreciated.

We ask that you click on the link below to read more about my Dad and help support our fund raising efforts.

http://www.gofundme.com/xm5ag

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