SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Dwight Clark revealed Sunday that he has Lou Gehrig’s disease and suspects playing football might have caused the illness.
Clark announced on Twitter that he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that attacks cells that control muscles. The former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver linked to a post on his personal blog detailing his ALS diagnosis, but the site crashed Sunday night, apparently from an overflow of traffic.
“I’ve been asked if playing football caused this,” Clark said in the post. “I don’t know for sure. But I certainly suspect it did.”
The 60-year-old Clark wrote that he began experiencing symptoms in September 2015. He’s lost significant strength in his left hand and also has weakness in his right hand, midsection, lower back and right leg.
“I can’t run, play golf or walk any distances,” he said. “Picking up anything over 30 pounds is a chore. The one piece of good news is that the disease seems to be progressing more slowly than in some patients.”