On the other side of ‘The Catch,’ ex-Cowboy frets about Clark
Everson Walls doesn’t want to talk about “The Catch,” and not just because he wasn’t the one catching the ball.
“It’s not fresh anymore,” Walls said. “I can’t make it any more than it was.”
He does want to talk about Dwight Clark, who leaped high over him that fateful day on Jan. 10, 1982, at Candlestick Park to win the NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and Dallas Cowboys in a play that will live in NFL lore. And he does want to talk about a football culture that for far too long ignored the price he, Clark and other players paid on the field.
It angers him every time he hears about “a suicide or illness you know is related to the game we love,” Walls said. “Some of the oldschool owners and even coaches back in the day never even cared about players, and then they feign sympathy after the fact. To me that’s the most important thing about what’s going on with Dwight right now.”
What’s going on with Clark, he revealed last week, is that he has ALS, the devastating muscle disease that is always fatal. Clark wrote that he already has weakness in his hands and midsection, and can’t run or play golf anymore.
The only bright spot for Clark is that the disease seems to be progressing slower than with most others.
Walls and Clark became friends while appearing together in autograph shows, signing their names to the famous photo of “The Catch” on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Walls plans to call the man he will be forever linked with to offer support.
“A great receiver, and he gave everything he had to the game,” Walls said. “We’re actually pretty good friends.”
Walls was finishing a spectacular season as a rookie cornerback for the Cowboys when Clark soared above him to make the winning catch. He would go on to play 14 seasons in the NFL, making the Pro Bowl four times and earning a Super Bowl ring in 1991 with the New York Giants.
“Every time I go on a show or do an interview, that’s all they want to ask me about,” he says of “The Catch.” “When my time comes you’ve got to have more than that. If not, you’ve missed a remarkable career. A whole bunch of stuff happened to me after my rookie season.
“I tell people, ‘Just Google me.’ ”
Walls made the cover of Sports Illustrated after that 1991 Super Bowl, too, raising his arms aloft in victory. He was the only player between Buffalo’s Thurman Thomas and the end zone late in the fourth quarter when his tackle helped save the game for the Giants.
Some think Walls, as well as Clark, should be in the Hall of Fame. Walls himself isn’t happy he’s not in the Cowboys’ ring of honor, though he remains a big fan of his hometown team and attends every home game.
He’s 57 now, with a second career as a motivational speaker working with children. He still loves football, even as he sees the toll it has taken on those who played the game. His knees crack every time he takes a step, and his neck pops out all the time. Walls says his back is always sore but he’s “never been a medication guy” and refuses to turn to pain pills for any relief they might give.
But so far at least, Walls is one of the luckier ones. His mind is fully intact, and he’s relatively healthy. Still, he’s angry players of his time weren’t better taken care of by their teams, especially when it came to hits to the head.
“No one mentioned it at all. No one,” he said. “You got your bell rung and it was a source of pride. If you piss blood after the game it’s a source of pride. Any scar was well earned and well thought of. But that’s not the point. The point is they didn’t try and protect us better based on the information they had. They ignored it because it was always a choice of money over a person’s wellbeing.”