Retired NFL Player and Wildlife Biologist
A defensive lineman on the San Francisco 49ers’ first Super Bowl champions in 1981-82, George Visger has lived with a shunt in his brain ever since — a consequence of the many concussions he sustained during his pee-wee, high school (Alonzo Stagg High in Stockton, California), college (Colorado), and National Football League career.
Yet despite suffering from “water on the brain” and impaired short-term memory, he became a wildlife biologist, a prominent figure in the fight for fair treatment of retired players by the $10-billion-a-year NFL, and an advocate of the American football concussion crisis at all levels.