Former NFL defensive tackle and WCW superstar Steve ‘Mongo’ McMichael revealed in a lengthy interview with Dan Wiederer of The Chicago Tribune that he has been diagnosed with ALS, with McMichael making the decision of going public with the announcement a little more than three months after he was formally diagnosed as his health is declining.
The report notes that 63-year-old McMichael has lost in the region of 50-60lbs in weight and is now down to near 200lbs, lighter than he was when he graduated from Freer Hight School in Texas back in 1976, while he now needs his wife Misty, of 23 years, to feed him, help him use the bathroom and give him sponge baths as he no longer can raise his arms or hold anything in his hands, with full-time confinement to a wheelchair to happen shortly.
The report adds that among the reasons that McMichael chose to go public with his battle with ALS was due to letting the world know that the curtain has lowered on his time in the public eye as there will be no more public appearances, no more performances with his band The Chicago Six and no more on-air analysis of the Chicago Bears on ESPN-1000, while he will never sign another autograph again, with the disease expected to further obstruct his breathing and potentially steal his speech as well.
McMichael noted in the interview that last Autumn, when chronic tingling in his arms continued to worsen, his concern elevated, while his wife also noticed that he was holding his silverware in an unconventional manner, almost like a caveman grip, with McMichael stating that for a long time, he figured that he was dealing with some sort of neck or spine issues stemming from his football and wrestling days, however in September, after a visit to a neurosurgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the first suggestion presented to him was that he might be dealing with ALS.
McMichael revealed that the doctor there raised his right arm and asked him to stop it from falling, with the idea to measure, on a scale from 1 to 10 how high McMichael could gain full control, however his arm plummeted instead like an anvil. McMichael revealed that he did not want to believe it and sough multiple other opinions and that on January 7, doctors at the Rush University Medical Center repeated the ALS diagnosis to him and that was when it became official, with a neurologist at the UIC Medical Center later surmising that the condition likely began setting in 36 months earlier.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help defray the mounting costs of Steve’s daily care and medical needs, while this weekend, Obvious Shirts founder Joe Johnson will begin to sell ‘Team Mongo’ t-shirts, with all proceeds going to Steve and his wife. Information on future fundraising events, as well as additional ‘Team Mongo’ gear can be found on the official ‘Team Mongo’ website at www.TeamMongo76.com.
The interview is available in full at this link.