BOSTON (AP) — Conrad Dobler embraced the violent nature of the NFL so completely that in the 1970s he was dubbed “Pro Football’s Dirtiest Player.”
All that violence may have damaged him worst of all.
The family of the late St. Louis Cardinals offensive lineman said Wednesday that he had an advanced form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and repeated hits to the head common in football and other contact sports.
“My dad loved the game of football, but his love for the game took a toll on his body, his mind and his relationships,” said his daughter, Erin Lewin, who was his primary caregiver when he died two years ago. “His CTE diagnosis provides a sense of closure in terms of justifying his neurological and behavioral issues that took a toll not only on him but on all of us who loved and cared for him.”
A three-time Pro Bowl selection who also spent time with the Saints and Bills, Dobler unabashedly milked his reputation as a dirty player, including a Lite Beer commercial that identified him as a “Famous Troublemaker” and a 1977 Sports Illustrated cover story in which he said, “I’ll do anything I can get away with."
But in the later years of his life he told his family that he wanted to make the game safer. In 2010, he pledged to donate his brain to researchers at the Boston University CTE Center; Dobler died in February 2023, the day after the Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, who meet again for the NFL championship on Sunday.
Researchers said Dobler had cortical sparing CTE, which tends to have slightly less severe cognitive symptoms but earlier onset of behavioral symptoms.
“Conrad started as my teammate and ultimately became my brother,” Pro Football Hall of Famer and fellow Cardinals lineman Dan Dierdorf said in a news release from the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “It broke my heart to watch him struggle and slowly slip away. He was a force of nature … until he wasn’t.”
CTE, which can only be diagnosed by examining the brain posthumously, can cause memory loss, depression and violent mood swings in athletes, combat veterans and others who sustain repeated head trauma. A 2017 survey said signs of the disease had been found in nearly 90% of the 200 brains examined, including 110 of 111 from NFL players.
Dobler had been active in the fight for better disability benefits for retired NFL players. The CLF said his family is encouraging other football players to participate in research while they are alive and to pledge to donate their brains when they die.
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Jimmy Golen, The Associated Press
