[alaskaguy]

In the Austin American-Statesman, Brad Buchholz catches up with a legend. But sadly, this isn’t a feel-good story.

“This is Earl Campbell, University of Texas icon,” “Winner of the 1977 Heisman Trophy. The soul of the ‘Love Ya Blue’ Houston Oilers. The Tyler Rose. The most elegant power runner to play the game. And this is Earl Campbell, a man who has yet to see his son Tyler play a college football game at San Diego State because it’s too difficult for him to negotiate the stairs at stadiums.”

Mr. Campbell is just 52, but he hasn’t slept in a bed for nearly seven years and must use a walker when he isn’t in a wheelchair.

“He relies on a driver — his longtime friend James ‘Sugar Bear’ Yates — to take him to work, or to fetch a can of Sprite at the 7-Eleven, or run him up to visit his brothers and sisters in Tyler,” Mr. Buchholz writes. “The most indomitable running back in the history of Texas football — as a collegian and a professional — has come to know what it is to be vulnerable.”

And if you really feel like being depressed read the rest of the article....

Link:
Earl Campbell, an old, hurting man at 52, remember his runs