Former Dolphin in poor health

Nick Buoniconti is going public about his condition.

For years, several members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins battled privately with health issues that could be related to football, but Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti is going public with his deteriorating condition.

Buoniconti, 76, who led the No-Name Defense to the Dolphins’ Perfect Season and three consecutive trips to the Super Bowl, has such trouble doing daily tasks his health has been a point of conversation among former teammates for years.

“This has been my dad’s reality for a while now, and it’s been a frustrating and heartbreaking journey,” his son, Marc, said in a family statement. “To see him like this after all he’s done to help others breaks my heart, and makes me want to do everything I can to find some answers for him and the countless other athletes dealing with these issues.

“We ask for your continued support as we try to help my father as he wages his courageous battle.”

Buoniconti, who has declined for years to speak about his condition, told Sports Illustrated in a story that will go

online today that he frequently loses his balance, can’t use his left hand and often can’t remember things.

It can’t be expressly stated that the problem is the after-effects of 14 years of NFL football, because the science hasn’t concluded that yet. When he had a hip replaced more than a decade ago, Buoniconti also declined to say the cause was football, saying, “I jogged a lot — who knows what caused it?”

Buoniconti isn’t the only member of the Perfect Season Dolphins to have health issues. Defensive end Bill Stanfill died at 69 last November, and his brain was sent to study if he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease from repeated blows to the head.

Jim Kiick, 70, is living in an assisted-care facility with dementia and being helped by former Dolphins. Quarterback Earl Morrall, who subbed for an injured Bob Griese much of the 1972 season, died at age 79 after with Stage 4 CTE, Sports Illustrated reported.

At least one other Dolphin from that team is suffering from dementia but his family has asked it to remain private.

Buoniconti has had a successful life after football. He was CEO of two Fortune 500 companies before helping to found The Miami Project after Marc was paralyzed in a college football game.

He has struggled with his condition to the point after falling backward down stairs and bleeding he told his wife, Lynn, “I should just kill myself. It doesn’t matter,” he told Sports Illustrated.

Buoniconti’s decision to go public evidently stems from pushing the NFL to improve health benefits for retired players. He told Sports Illustrated, “it’s so unnecessary, what the NFL is putting the players through by making us document the neurological deficiencies.

“Not everybody can afford to go through that. And they say they’ll pay for it — but do you know what that’s like, actually getting the money?”

Buoniconti went on to say in the article that, “At 55 I was very normal. I’m not normal anymore . ...

“I feel lost,” he said. “I feel like a child.”

MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES FILE Nick Buoniconti says he can’t remember many things, loses his balance, and cannot use his left hand.