The Josh Innes Show - JIS Classic: Jim McMahon On Radio Row

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

This is from Super Bowl Radio Row 2017. The Punky QB Jim McMahon joined us. This was during a time when concussions were still top of mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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it is the Josh Dennis show. And with us now, one of the greats, Jim McMahon. How you doing, sir? Doing good, doing good. You know, I was watching the 30 for 30 about the 85 Bears. And I think it was either the 30 for 30 or the real sports that was it. They did a real sports about you, right? I believe in particular. I don't remember. Well, it was either a real sports or one of those.

And I ask because I had enceph I don't remember. Well, it was either a real sports or one of those. And I ask because I had encephalitis of the brain once, which is not CTE or anything like that, or tons of concussions, but it's a brain issue. And I remember just having to have a needle stuck in my back all the time to drain spinal fluid. And what I recall from one of the stories about you was that for years you had these headaches,

and they were just terrible. And then for years you didn't know why why and they tried to give you different things. Then they decided to just drain spinal fluid I believe and a lot of your symptoms were alleviated. Right, right? Do I remember that one correctly? Well they didn't drain it with a needle. They adjusted my neck. I have two blockages in my neck. C1 and two are twisted, and then my C6 and seven are cracked and compressed. So I had a broken neck at some point in my career that nobody told me about. That's amazing.

So those are actually sticking out into the spinal column and causing the spinal fluid to back up into my brain. And how could they never find that for years and years and years? It's incredible. Who knows? Well, I mean, it's the one thing too, because you look back at the league, and obviously some stuff was withheld from players,

and that's all well documented, but like you would think if you go to a doctor and you say, I've got all these headaches, why? You would have eventually found that out, and I mean, do you feel like you lost like years of enjoyment of your life because that was never discovered? There's no doubt about it.

I mean, I spent weeks and months at a time just laying in a dark room because that's the only thing that made my head feel good is when I laid down. And then the doctor explained to me when I'm sitting up or standing up that the gravity was pushing my head down and actually cutting off the fluid. So when I laid down, the bones moved enough to let some of that fluid out and relieve some of the pressure. How does that impact your life in the sense of like personal relationships, relationships with friends? Cause a lot of people may not understand,

like your buddies just think Jim's being a jerk or Jim doesn't want to go out. Like they don't realize this pain. How does that impact your life with people, girlfriends, wives, et cetera? Well, when I'm, when I'm, my bones are out of whack. It's, it's, you know, I'm not real talkative. I don't want to, I don't want to be around people.

Like I said, all I want to do is lay down and so just spending time with with friends and family is tough yeah and we're talking with Jim McMahon and I know that people ask questions like this all the time of guys who played in a bygone era and had to deal with the concussions but just regret ever come to mind do you regret playing football no I don't regret it and I do it again I just I just want to be diagnosed properly. I think the problem with a lot of these guys is that they just don't get diagnosed properly. Or if they do get hurt, you can't have head trauma without neck trauma.

And a lot of head people don't look below the neck or below the head. And that's where a lot of the problems seem to be stemming. Because when these guys hit each other and you have a concussion, you're going to have trauma with your neck too. And that has to be addressed. Sure. And the famous hit, who was it that put the famous hit on you?

Charles Martin. Charles Martin put that hit. When you get, then that hit's delivered. That's the start of my head problems, by the way. Do you remember that when it happened? Do you remember what happened after it? I mean, were you knocked out cold? I mean, what happened?

I wasn't knocked out, but my head is certainly ringing. And my doctor explained to me the only way that my C1 and 2 can get twisted the way they are is getting dumped on your head. And I said, well, I have a film clip of that if you want to see it. Sure. So my problem's been going on for 30 years.

So I know I'm going to have CTE when I die. It's just a matter of how bad it's gonna be. Does that scare you? Well, at least I know what's wrong with me now. So when I start having symptoms, I can go take care of it. I can live fairly normal life. But when I'm out of whack, like I said, I'm pretty much a vegetable.

Yeah, that's the scary part about it. Like I was watching a thing about Kevin Turner, who used to play for the Eagles and died of ALS. And it's like, you know, you don't mean to be so depressing about it, but you see guys and they say playing football, they believe directly linked, was linked to this ALS or CTE. Like I would live in that fear all the time

of wondering when this is going to happen. When will it start affecting me? Like that would scare me. Well, I think it scares, it's scaring a lot of people. You see a couple of young guys retired last year, the year before. Yeah, I think the game, they're trying to make the game safe. They're doing as much as they can, but unfortunately this is a violent game. Guys are going to get hurt.

But like I say, if they're diagnosed properly, there are steps you can take to avoid the long-term effects. Sure. And hopefully they'll get to that. Do you like the way the game is played now? Like, do you watch the game and enjoy football? No, I'm not a big fan. Why?

I just, I enjoyed playing. I'm not a, even when I was playing, if I wasn't playing in a game, I didn't have a whole lot of interest in it. Sure. But, you know, football is a great game. Nobody wants football to go away. That's not what we're here for this week.

But we just want people to understand and be able to get the treatment that they need in order to come back on the field. I remember, like, some of the stories would be that, like, you'd go into a room and not know why you walked into the room, like, that type of stuff. And that's the sad part is there's a lot of guys

that are like that that played the game. And if they just would have said hey This is what's wrong like let's fix this this this here on the base I mean, do you believe or do you hold a grudge against the commissioner or anybody who withheld this information against you? Well, yeah, I mean they they've known for a long time. It was just like the you know, big tobacco They knew for a long time and they denied everything Even the settlement we just we just tobacco they knew for a long time and they denied everything even the settlement we just we just finished up the NFL didn't didn't say they knew

anything that was part of the settlement they didn't have to disclose what they knew yeah so it's unfortunate but like I said at least at least for me personally I know what's wrong with me now so I can I can I don't have those thoughts of suicide and the things I had before they found out what's wrong with me now. So I don't have those thoughts of suicide and the things I had before, they found out what was wrong. But I can understand these guys' frustrations. On the flip side, one of the arguments could be, well, you know if you're running your head

against a wall a hundred times, it can't be good for you. You may not know how bad it is for you, but you don't know how, it can't be good for you. How much of the blame do you put on players themselves at all, still playing a dangerous game? Like if you know your bell was rung and you still went back in how much of that is on you and how much of that? Is on the guys who said get back in there well back when I played it wasn't you know you didn't have a choice

I mean now they've they've got these protocols in place supposedly That if you do get ding you've got to go through whatever they have to go through Back when I was playing it was follow my finger. You know, you feel okay, okay, you can go back in. But those are the kinds of things that they need to eliminate and they need to eliminate. I don't say get rid of but I wouldn't let kids put helmets on until they got to high school because their necks and their heads are not strong enough to support not only a helmet but but the collisions they're going to have. And I think what also hurts is that they don't properly

teach these things. You usually have someone's dad out there coaching 7-year-olds, and they don't know the proper tackling techniques. And that's what leads to a lot of those injuries, too. A lot of these kids, you don't hear about it a lot, but there's a lot of kids every year that die because of their head and their neck injuries from being that small. Their ne head and their neck injuries from from from

being that small. Their necks and heads are not built for that. And you know, you can still learn the game. You can learn the fundamentals of the game playing a flag game or whatever it is, but do not put helmets on them. That's that'll save you at least eight years of pounding. Sure. But then on the flip side, though, would it be detrimental if you're not doing that until you get to high school Or would it eventually even out where well no one's playing when they're 10 So everyone's learning the game at the same time when they're 15 well They're gonna they're gonna you know people will find talent no matter where yet

No matter how long you're gonna play you can play for one year if you're good They're gonna find you sure and but this will eliminate. You know eight years of pounding For a young kid. That's you, their brain is still maturing. And so that'll save a lot of that. And then once you get to the high school level, your necks and your body is actually physically capable of supporting that weight and supporting when you're gonna get hit with it.

Sure, Jim McMahon with us. What do you remember about the Fog Bowl? Couldn't see. I worked in Philly. So that's one of these great games in lore, right? And a lot of people are convinced that the Eagles were going to the Super Bowl that year, if not for the Fog Bowl. What do you remember about? I'm convinced of it too. You think the Eagles would have been? The Eagles, they actually played better in the first half. The first half was beautiful, beautiful sunny day.

But I think it was about two minutes to go in the half is when the fog started rolling over the stadium. You know, as players, you're thinking that's just people out there tailgating and that's just barbecue smoke coming out. So we went in at halftime when we came out, it was just a blanket. I mean, you couldn't see. Probably 15 yards away. And I remember the head ref Jim Tunney

went to the 50 yard line and looked both ways and said he could see both goal posts, which was a lie. You couldn't see anything. And what amazed me in the second half, nobody dropped a punt or a kickoff. I mean, guys are back there, all they can hear is a thud and then they're just looking up into the soup to find the ball.

It was amazing they could catch it. Well the idea I guess from the people in Philly is that it was rigged for the Bears because they knew nobody could see and I think you guys already had the lead it was like 17 to 9 or something. It was a pretty close game. It was a close game at half and they said everyone's screwed so let's just play this thing out Bears have the advantage they're moving on yeah that's like the urban legend in Philadelphia. Well what was funny is it was the guys that were trying to call the game because there was a guy on the sidelines with a walkie-talkie and he would call up to

say what just happened but that was like by the time they announced it was three plays later so nobody could follow that game. It was it was an interesting game I'm glad that the fog came in or else we wouldn't we probably wouldn't have won that game. Are you still friendly with Mike Ditka? Yeah. You guys are good? Yeah, I'll see Mike tomorrow night at his cigar party. Jim's going to be there as well dressed as 80s Mike Ditka.

We've been invited so he got the sweater and everything. So we're excited. We're losers. Should be a good time. We're dopes. So he wanted to go smoke with Mike Ditka and maybe you, who knows? And I said good, but you've got to go in the sweater vest. So he's got the sweater vest and the glasses.

I've got to shave the beard I've had the beard for three years now he's got a mustache he's got a beard now that's true but we're going straggly white beard we're going old school though we're going mustache or am I going current and retro no you're just going retro you're just going retro um one more about Ditka and that you guys held a grudge against him because he said scab players were real players right like that was kind of a big fallout with Ditka on that. Like what was the relationship with Ditka like after he says, hey, these are the Chicago Bears and those guys aren't and you guys are picketing. Like what's the relationship like? Well, that was two years

after we'd won the Superbowl. So we'd already had a kind of a maybe a falling out with the coach because, you know, he got on there a lot of guys for doing falling out with the coach because you know he got on there a lot of guys for doing endorsements and he did and then he did pretty much everything on the planet and so guys were a little upset that you know that he had some rules for him and rules for the team can you imagine what like Jim McMahon would be in today's NFL with Twitter Facebook endorsements everywhere you were kind of at the forefront, you know, the punk EQB, the commercials. Imagine what you would be today.

I mean, you'd be like Odell Beckham Jr. or one of these are Peyton Manning who's in all these commercials. I'm glad they didn't have cell phones back in that day. That's for sure. I feel you know that that's it's a whole different, you know, dynamic with, you know but everything you do is scrutinized. Back then, at least we could get away and have a little fun without being all over the internet. Yeah, an example is what happened to you at the Super Bowl.

They said you said all the New Orleans women were ugly or something. It wasn't New Orleans women? They said that I said that all the women were sluts and the men were stupid. That was Buddy D who did that. Buddy DiLiberti. So my Super Bowl week was more about surviving and not getting shot because I was getting death threats. I was getting you know women were picketing in the hotel and it was it was not the kind of week I'd envisioned. So they keep you in the hotel the entire time not let you go anywhere? Well up until Thursday night we got in I think on Monday so Monday Tuesday and Wednesday it was pretty much a free-for-all down on Bourbon Street. After that Thursday morning is when all the stuff hit the

fan and after that I didn't I didn't go out anywhere. That's a Jim McMahon I know you got to run I got a guy that wants to do an interview with you over there but honor talking with you sir glad you're feeling healthy. Alright guys, appreciate it. Thanks. That is Jim McMahon this is the Josh Innis Showcase.