The Final Score

Wesley Walker, the former Jets WR from 1976-89, is from SoCal but loved Long Island so much he's lived in Dix Hills since the 1980s.

After he retired from football, he got a job, because that's what players then. His salary his last year in football was around $700,000, a very nice salary, especially for 1989. But it was not going to set him up for life. So he became a gym teacher, and he's been working in a Kings Park elementary school for almost a decade now.

But there's something else: He says he's in pain, constant pain, pain all over. He said it's the result of nerve damage from a neck injury. A mere pat on the shoulder sends a shock wave through his body, he said. More days than not, he said he wakes up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, staring into space.

Here's the story. Why did he speak so openly? The NFL and NFLPA recently denied his application for complete disability, so I'm sure that was a motivator. He also said he wants people - fans and players - to realize that football players put their bodies on the line, and the effects will be permanent.