Canadian Football Hall of Famer Matt Dunigan sits down with the CFL ON TSN's Brian Williams to speak candidly about his own personal fight with post-concussion syndrome and how concussions have touched the lives of those he loves the most in a special feature airing Friday at 7pm et/4pm pt during the SAMSUNG CFL ON TSN PRE-GAME SHOW.
Fifteen years after retiring from the CFL, Dunigan is still waiting for the clouds to lift from the 12 diagnosed concussions that he sustained over the course of his career as a superstar quarterback.
During the feature, the long-time CFL ON TSN analyst is joined by his wife Kathy, who details how concussions affected her partner of almost 30 years.
"He forgot how to laugh. He didn't think anything was funny anymore," explains Kathy. "Physically he had really bad headaches and he had ghost spots over his eyes."
Dunigan also describes to Williams how he was faced with the difficult decision of pulling his youngest son, Dolan, a promising quarterback in his own right, out of football after he suffered three concussions before the age of 14.
"Just watching him and hearing stories about how good he was in the CFL, I wanted to be just like him," says Dolan about his father. "It was almost impossible to give [football] up but it was probably the best decision he made for me."
In addition, Dunigan confirms that he will donate his brain to concussion research in hopes that, "they'll be able to advance the science and understanding of concussions and brain injuries to help others."
