Earlier this month, Arizona Cardinals safety Matt Ware received the 33rd annual Ed Block Courage Award. Ware received the award not just for the courage it took to overcome multiple knee injuries in the 2008 and 2009 seasons, but also because he overcame his March 2009 diabetes diagnosis.
Learning that Ware had diabetes was a surprise for most media members and fans because unlike other players (Jay Cutler for instance), there was no public knowledge of Ware’s diagnosis. His agent, JR Rickert, explained to LBS it was kept that way for two reasons.
Rickert said that Ware wanted to keep the news private because he was not comfortable letting the public know about a personal medical issue. Secondly, as Rickert explained “there are some conditions that guys have that essentially have little to no impact on the field, so you don’t want to create a question where there really isn’t a question.”
Rickert cited ADD as a similar condition that could be negatively perceived by teams, but is really insignificant. “As long as they’re dealing with it and overcoming it, I’m not sure you want to share that with a club if they don’t know it already because that is a guy’s right to deal with it anyway he sees fit,” he reasoned.
Ware signed a two-year deal with the Cardinals in 2008, re-signed for one year in 2010, and is now a free agent.
