Taking his best shot in fight against ALS
Flames assistant GM inspires challenge that has raised $150,000
When Chris Snow kicked a field goal to raise awareness for ALS, the ball travelled more than 40 yards. The cause he sparked is going much further.
Snow, an assistant general manager with the Calgary Flames, is battling a rare mutation of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. And the video of his field goal has prompted people across sports to take up his trick-shot challenge. Chicago Cubs GM Theo Epstein thought it was cool and posted a video of his own field goal, a perfect 50-yarder. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee and baseball writer Jeff Passan joined in. The challenge has raised more than $150,000 for ALS awareness and treatments.
“I wanted to do something physical to remind myself how physical I still am,” Snow said of his kick. “I said, you know what, I used to kick footballs when I went to Syracuse University. A friend of mine there, we used to climb the fence around the field, and then we’d play H-OR-S-E, just like in basketball, only with kicking a football.
“The best I ever hit when I was in Syracuse was 47 yards, so that first kick I did in the video, I said, I still got this.”
And that first kick has inspired so much more. Snow, with the help of Flames staff, came up with #TrickShot4Snowy, a challenge to anyone to do any kind of trick shot, in any sport, to help the cause.
Snow could have focused on himself. The 38-year-old has lost four relatives to the disease. He was given a year to live last June. But he has found strength in the support of wife Kelsie, son Cohen, daughter Willa, family, friends, the Flames and, now, the hundreds of thousands of people that have watched his video.
He knows it is important to do something with the time you have.
“It makes you feel like going through this is worthwhile, that I have a chance to make a difference,” Snow said. “If my story helps people to slow down, enjoy today, give their kids an extra hug, that’s a victory.”
Snow is a valuable member of Flames GM Brad Treliving’s staff, overseeing analytics, contract negotiations and myriad other duties. But last April he began to feel weakness in two fingers on his right hand. The condition progressed until he lost much of the use of his right hand.
His wife eloquently detailed what her husband was going through in a moving piece that appeared in Sports Illustrated. The couple was beset with a worst case-scenario in June: Snow was diagnosed with ALS, in his case an inherited, aggressive mutation of the disease.
Through his doctor, Snow learned of a treatment at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital. He and his family have been flying from Calgary to Toronto once a month to see Dr. Lorne Zinman, a leading physician in the ALS field, and to get an injection via spinal tap. The result has been an extension on life, something that Kelsie Snow has chronicled in her blog.
“When Chris was diagnosed with ALS last summer, he had already lost most of the use of his right hand. He couldn’t cut his food or tie his shoes. It was getting harder to button his shirts, turn the key in his car’s ignition and play catch with our son,” Kelsie Snow wrote.
“Most ALS is sporadic, but Chris’s is familial, caused by a mutated gene that can be passed down. In just two generations, ALS has taken two of his uncles, his 28-year-old cousin and, in 2018, his dad. And as if this disease isn’t cruel enough, their particular mutation is aggressive. The average life expectancy for someone with ALS is three to five years. For Chris it’s six to 18 months.”
A year after his diagnosis, Snow tweeted out a triumphant message this week: “Last June 17, I was given one year to live. I should have lost the ability to walk, talk, eat and breathe. Instead I took three steps back, two to the left, and did this (kicked a field goal) …”
He has found ways to get thing done. When he returned to the ice last fall, he still had difficulties with his right hand. But the Flames equipment manager sewed Snow’s hockey glove into a fist so he could hold his stick better, and Snow was able to ring a puck off the crossbar.
Snow is making every day a blessing, and that includes using his circumstances to help others.
“There’s so much feedback to the video that I didn’t know about,” Snow said. “My wife and I are trying to teach our children how to love … No matter how long I have, we have the opportunity to do something for the greater good, and when you have that opportunity, you gotta take it.”