HOF LB Nick Buoniconti Says NFL Is 'Waiting for Us to Die' Amid Health Issues

Former Boston Patriots and Miami Dolphins linebacker Nick Buoniconti called the National Football League's concussion settlement a "joke" and said the NFL is "waiting for us to die."  

On Tuesday, S.L. Price of Sports Illustrated passed along comments from the 76-year-old Pro Football Hall of Famer about how the NFL treats players from his generation.  

"We're the players who built the game, but have been forgotten," Buoniconti said. "The settlement is a joke; the way it was structured is a joke. They are waiting for us to die. They're going to play the clock out until everybody dies."

The Notre Dame product was a crucial building block of the Dolphins' dominance in the 1970s, helping the franchise win two Super Bowl titles and secure an undefeated season in 1972.

Alas, health problems are now a constant issue.

He discussed an appearance at a Legends Invitational dinner in November 2016 with Sports Illustrated. While he served as the emcee throughout the evening, he talked about the behind-the-scenes issues, including needing the assistance of his wife, Lynn, to ensure he came out of the bathroom "dry and unexposed."

Buoniconti hasn't received a consensus about what's ailing him. It's been suggested it could be "corticobasal syndrome, complicated by an atypical Parkinsonian Syndrome or CTE or Alzheimer's." But he knows things have deteriorated considerably over the past two decades.

"At 55, I was very normal," he said. "I'm not normal anymore."

Buoniconti added: "I feel lost. I feel like a child."

In December, Ken Belson of the New York Times reported the United States Supreme Court refused to review the NFL's concussion settlement. This allowed payments to begin to former players in a case that could be worth up to $1 billion. 

Buoniconti told Sports Illustrated his portion of the deal was only $132,000, but he's more concerned about the lasting impact the game had on his body.

"I didn't have any idea the price would be this debilitating," he said. "Had I known, would I have played? I had no alternative; there was no other way for me to get a college education. Football kept rewarding me—I can't deny that. But I'm paying the price."

Along with dementia and lingering physical issues, he was also diagnosed with prostate cancer in January 2016. He told SI he doesn't know what the next step will be, but added: "I really would like to know what the hell is going on."