For Clark, ALS as heartbreaking as his Catch’ was legendary

DWIGHT Clark became emotional as we watched “The Catch” on my portable DVD player in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan hotel 10 years ago.

The television copy of the game reached third down from the Cowboys six with 57 seconds left in the 49ers vs. Cowboys 1981 NFC Championship Game. Clark became noticeably anxious, as if he wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. The Niners trailed, 27-21, and Candlestick Park was rocking.

As the business people streamed in and out of the hotel lobby that day, Joe Montana rolled right on the DVD on a play called “Sprint Right Option,” and lofted a pass the Cowboys to this day insist he was trying to throw away into the second deck. Clark jumped as high as he ever had in his life and higher than he ever would again to grab Montana’s pass with both hands.

As Clark watched himself spike the ball — no end zone dance — a big smile crossed his face. Then some tears formed around his eyes. As he tried to speak, his voice cracked. He was choked up. He was reliving the highlight of a lifetime.

“The cool part about that play is, the Dallas Cowboys had beaten up the 49ers team two or three times to knock them out of the Super Bowl in the early 70s, and to be able to give the 49ers fans that one signature play, I’ll forever be that guy,” Clark told me. “The story is passed down from generation to generation. It becomes bigger than life. That is definitely my football identity. And I’m fine with that. I actually like it a lot.”

Clark is a terrific guy. I got to know him back in 2007 when I was researching my book, “The Catch,” and the play that was the turning point for two franchises. It started the 49ers dynasty — they beat the Bengals two weeks later, the first of their five Super Bowl titles in 15 years — and was the beginning of the end of the Tom Landry era in Dallas.

The news from Clark on Sunday night that he has been diagnosed with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is as devastating and heartbreaking as what he did on Jan. 10, 1982 was exhilarating and a forever moment.

Clark is just 60-years old. “The Catch” is one of the five most famous plays in NFL history. Clark leaping with Cowboys cornerback Everson Walls trailing him is an iconic picture. The battle he faces now is much tougher than jumping out of Candlestick to make “The Catch.”

In a statement Clark posted, he brought up the possibility of the connection between ALS and his football career. He played nine years in the NFL after a college career at Clemson.

“I’ve been asked if playing football caused this,” he said. “I don’t know for sure. But I certainly suspect it did. And I encourage the NFLPA and the NFL to continue working together in their effort to make the game of football safer as it relates to head trauma.”

There is no cure for ALS. It’s just a matter of how long Clark’s body can fight off the disease that weakens muscles and leads to problems speaking, breathing and swallowing.

“In September of 2015, I started feeling weakness in my left hand. I was mildly paying attention to it because since my playing days, I’ve constantly had pain in my neck,”

Clark said in his statement. “I was thinking it was related to some kind of nerve damage because it would just come and go.”

Former Patriots and Eagles fullback Kevin Turner was diagnosed with ALS in 2010. He died in March of 2016. Eight months later, the Boston University Brain CTE Center revealed that Turner died from a severe case of CTE. It was not the ALS that killed him, according to its findings. That raises the issue of a link between ALS and CTE and football.

Clark visited six neurologists and six ALS specialists once his condition began to deteriorate.

“In addition to lose strength in my left hand — which makes opening a pack of sugar or buttoning my shirt impossible — I have now experienced weakness in my right hand, abs, lower back and right leg,” Clark said.

“The Catch” only happened because Clark was home when the phone rang in the apartment he shared senior year at Clemson with quarterback Steve Fuller. 49ers coach Bill Walsh was in town to work out Fuller and when he called to set up a time, Clark answered the phone and Walsh asked him to catch passes at the workout.

After the workout, Walsh asked Clark if they could go watch some game tape of him.

“Coach, I only caught 11 passes this year. There’s just not much to watch,” Clark said.

Walsh asked if there was any game he caught two passes. So, they watched the game against North Carolina.

Walsh didn’t draft Fuller. The 49ers didn’t have a first-round pick and the Chiefs selected him in the first round. He drafted Montana in the third round. He wanted to take Clark in the fifth, but his scouts told him he had free-agent talent. Walsh drafted him in the 10th C round. lark won two Super Bowls and caught 506 regularseason passes and 48 more in the playoffs, including one really big one. Just over 36 years ago, Clark jumped as high as his body would allow and made a catch that changed his life. Now, sadly, there’s another reason to shed a tear.