Tim Shaw Wants To Bring Back The Ice Bucket Challenge
August 28, 2015 at 12:30 pm Bill DiFilippo 1 comment
Former Penn State linebacker Tim Shaw ’06 is battling Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). One of the ways that Shaw, who you can read about in our September/October issue, wants to raise awareness for the disease is to bring back the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, in which people dump buckets of freezing cold water onto their heads to help raise money – last summer, it raised $115 million in six weeks – and awareness for ALS.
According to For The Win, Shaw already knows who he wants to nominate: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Few people, Shaw believes, are in more of a position to bring the cause to the forefront of the public’s attention again than the NFL Commissioner. Goodell is the most powerful person in a sport that Shaw knows could have possibly given him — and other retired NFL players — the disease. Former players with ALS received money in the NFL’s settlement of concussion-related lawsuits and according to the CDC are four times as likely to be diagnosed with the disease.
Shaw, who also tweeted his request to Goodell, wants the NFL’s commissioner to show that he is sympathetic to the risks that football players take by playing a game that could impact their long-term physical and mental well-being. There’s no word on whether or not Goodell will accept, but he’s done the challenge before, so what’s the harm in doing it one more time?
Bill DiFilippo, online editor
Entry filed under: From the Magazine. Tags: Tim Shaw.
1. Tim Shaw, A Titan for Life | The Football Letter Blog | August 3, 2016 at 12:06 pm
[…] life. Shaw ’06, who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 2014 and has become a champion for those who suffer from the disease, signed a one-day contract with the team before immediately getting placed on the […]