PLYMOUTH, Minn. -- When the Minnesota Brain Injury Association was looking for an ambassador for their annual "Walk For Thought" event, they thought big. Really big. The Association tabbed former Minnesota Viking and NFL Hall of Famer Randall McDaniel to head-up this year's event, and McDaniel, who has a long history of community involvement, was only too happy to help out an organization whose work hits all too close to home.
A perennial pro bowl guard for the Minnesota Vikings and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, McDaniel made his living in a sport that features violent collisions not only in weekly games, but in daily practice routines as well. As such, McDaniel has seen friends and former teammates suffer from the hits they took on the playing field.
More recently, McDaniel has also seen the effect brain injuries are having on the men and women who are serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he sees his work with the Brain Injury Association as an opportunity to help out a cause he feels strongly about.
So, it was against a backdrop of high school football players, a group McDaniel hopes will be able to avoid the head injuries that plagued players in the past, that Randall McDaniel opened-up about brain injuries, his football career, and his current job as a paraprofessional, in an interview format we call, 11 Questions.
For more information visit http://www.braininjurymn.org/fundraising/.