After playing the sport for 15 years and now making a living by talking about it, Jason Scukanec has a love/hate relationship with football.
It’s not that the former Mountain View High School and Brigham Young University standout is ungrateful for all the game has given him. It’s just that he is reminded of the cost every day.
“I’m 32 years old, and I feel as though my body is probably 62,” said Scukanec, who is a radio personality weekdays on 1080 The Fan. “I’ve had multiple knee surgeries, multiple ankle surgeries. I have a neck that probably needs to be operated on, but I refuse to because it’s on my spine.
“Every once in a while, a whole side of my body goes numb. I have arthritis in my hands. I have no delusions of grandeur that I’m going to get better. This is my body.”
And that’s what makes Scukanec’s story so fascinating.
It’s not that the former offensive lineman — he once weighed 335 pounds and now is a healthy 225 — is complaining. Football, after all, provided him with a scholarship to BYU and a cup of coffee in the NFL.
It’s just that Scukanec frequently speaks honestly about the sport on the radio show he co-hosts with Isaac Ropp. That honesty includes the fact that he won’t allow his son, now 8, to play football until young Yzerman — named for hockey great Steve Yzerman — is at least in high school.
“All the research shows that when you’re at a developmental age, it’s not a good idea to repeatedly ram your head into a wall,” Scukanec said.
“I get all kinds of wonderful e-mails. People get defensive that we’re attacking football, and we aren’t. We’re just having an informed discussion. Don’t keep your kid from playing football because I said it, but make an informed decision.”
Such an decision must consider a recent revelation. A new study has found a link between repeated head trauma and symptoms that are similar to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
“Lord knows how many concussions I had and how many I played through,” said Scukanec, who lives in La Center with his wife and three children. “And it scares the hell out of me.”
To their credit, football’s overlords take concussions seriously these days. From the NFL to the high school level, measures have been implemented to require improved diagnosis of head trauma and to protect athletes from returning to competition too soon.
Most football players don’t compete beyond high school. Most don’t play at the Division I level or spend time in NFL training camps. And while we now are seeing studies into the long-term health risks of playing in the NFL, research is scant into the effects on your typical youth or high school player.
Scukanec, meanwhile, is left with what he half-jokingly calls “senior moments.” Witty and outspoken and insightful on the radio, he said he’s prone to forgetfully driving past his house or forgetting what somebody told him just moments before.
Yet he retains the love half of his relationship with football.
“I never want to come across as though I despise the sport,” he said. “I took lessons from football that have served me well. The one thing I miss is the relationships; I cherish those memories so, so much.
“But there’s a dark side. When you play football, your body’s a credit card and you just charge it and charge it and charge it.
“And eventually that bill comes due.”
Greg Jayne is Sports editor of The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4531, or by e-mail at greg.jayne@columbian.com. To read his blog, go to columbian.com/weblogs/GregJayne
