Roger Craig shocked the football world when he announced that he had dementia during his Hall of Fame induction speech. Now, set to receive his Ring of Excellence at halftime of the 49ers’ game Sunday, Craig’s family opened up about his diagnosis for the first time.
The three-time Super Bowl-champion running back’s condition has stabilized over the past several years, his wife, Vernessia, told The Athletic in a feature published Thursday.
Craig, 66, no longer drives but is otherwise still self-sufficient, according to the story. Besides his dementia, he is in good health — the only medication or supplement he takes is Vitamin D.
That said, he also has a cluster of symptoms associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease that can only be diagnosed posthumously.
His family noticed Craig begin to deteriorate during the pandemic lockdown. According to his son, Rogdrick, “he stopped using his brain in ways that he did before.”
The first warning sign, Vernessia said, came about a decade ago. They had made plans to meet at a restaurant, but her husband never showed and told her that it had slipped his mind.
Doctors officially diagnosed Craig with vascular dementia when he underwent more testing after the pandemic and told him that it was related to traumatic brain injuries.
Craig’s family doesn’t know how many concussions he suffered over the course of an 11-year career delivering bruising blocks and catching passes over the middle of the field, but they said there was one season in which he was knocked out two or three times and never left the game.
It was Walter Payton who told Craig that he needed to meet force with force.
And he would do it all over again.
“I don’t regret it,” he told The Athletic. “ … I loved the hit.”
