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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/content/sports/epaper/2008/03/19/a1c_brigance_0319.html
Former Dolphin O.J. Brigance determined to beat Lou Gehrig's
By TIM GRAHAM
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Medical data says O.J. Brigance probably has another year or two left.
He doesn't agree with the cold facts, doesn't seem to care he's gradually being overtaken by an opponent as undefeated as death itself.
Brigance has faith he will be the first person to beat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the incurable neuromuscular disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
He forcefully declares he will survive, says he will raise children he doesn't have yet, will go back to school and get his MBA.
A cynic would say Brigance is in denial. But when you're a God-fearing man of 38, an overachiever who beat the odds to become special-teams captain for the Miami Dolphins and win a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens, there's always enough time.
"I have a peace that surpasses all understanding," Brigance said. "It's not lying awake at night, staying up all night, anguishing, eyes red the next day. No, that's not it.
"I have a confidence that I will be healed. I have a confidence that this will not end in death."
Although Brigance chuckles as if he knows something others don't while discussing the future, his disease is terminal. One hundred percent who have had it died ... slowly ... cruelly.
...
An outpouring of support
Brigance initially wanted to keep his diagnosis private, but as he has gotten more involved in ALS fund-raising causes, word of his battle is starting to circulate in the NFL community.
"When I found out the news, it took the wind out of my body," said former Dolphins teammate and fellow Rice alum Larry Izzo, now of the New England Patriots. "To find that out about a person that you care for, it's a shock. Someone so young ... "
