S Donnie Nickey (Official thread)

[CleveBucks]

Titan plans for his next stage of life after career

Yet with the clock ticking down on his NFL career, and with the lockout now more than two months old, the longest-tenured Titan is putting some extra energy into preparing for life after football.

The entrepreneur’s most recent venture, a restaurant/bar called Neighbors, opened in Sylvan Park late last month.

“I’m as hungry as ever. I want to play as long as I can possibly play. There’s nothing like Sundays, so as long as I have a place to play I am going to take advantage of that,” said Nickey, 31. “But when my career does end, I don’t want to find myself with absolutely nothing to do. … I’ve used my body for so long. Now I’m trying to put myself in a position where I can use my brain.”

cont...

 

[brodybuck21]

Donnie is not listed on the Titans' roster anymore.

 

[brodybuck21]

Not on any roster

 

[Buckskin86]

Donnie Nickey tees off on kickoff rule
Posted by Mike Florio on August 23, 2011

We?re still waiting for someone (anyone) to make a persuasive, passionate argument in favor of the decision to move the kickoff point from the 30 to the 35. Meanwhile, a free agent who made his living covering kickoffs has made a persuasive, passionate argument against the change ? and generally against the league?s efforts to make an inherently risky sport less so.

Former Titans safety Donnie Nickey, who currently is unemployed, thinks he?s unemployed in part because of the new kickoff rule. And he thinks other men will lose their jobs because of it.

?In today?s economy industries need to be creating jobs,? Nickey told Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean via e-mail. ?In the NFL, the new kickoff rule is eliminating jobs. The kickoff may as well be eliminated all together. For eight years I made my living covering kickoffs and I took pride in it. The kickoff may be the most violent play in all of sports but is one of the most exciting and game changing plays as well.?

Nickey acknowledges that he has a vested interest in the new rule, but his points are still valid. ?The first sign of the kickoff?s extinction was the elimination of the four man wedge,? Nickey said. ?That eliminated the need for a wedgebuster, which is how I earned my job. I think the NFL is destroying the true game of football and the physicality that America has grown to love. For someone who has never played the game to make so many changes unchecked is criminal. Paul Brown is rolling over in his grave because of all the changes made in the name of ?player safety.??

Cont...

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/08/23/donnie-nickey-tees-off-on-kickoff-rule/

 

[Buckskin86]

Football | 9/11: Buckeyes recall the day it all changed
Over years of football, Sept. 11 remains a vivid memory for 2001 team
Friday September 9, 2011
By Rob Oller
The Columbus Dispatch

?This was important?

Nickey was ready to go.

?I was ready to enlist, and would have done it if I had not been a student playing football at Ohio State,? the former Buckeyes safety said this week. ?I felt a responsibility to do that.?

Nickey had stood with other teammates around a TV in the practice facility watching the North tower burn when the second plane hit the South tower.

?All the sudden you knew something was going on. There was a sense of danger, and you knew this was important,? he said.

Shock quickly turned to anger.

?As soon as they figured out who had done it, I remember talking to teammates, and it felt like the whole team would have gotten on a C-130 (military transport) and flown over that night. It really unified the team.?

Jim Tressel, only one game into his Ohio State coaching career saw his leadership abilities tested early. His players agree he guided them well through the tough weeks that followed.

?He set the stage and put it into perspective, how we get so much praise when there is a real war going on, and we only simulate it for entertainment,? Nickey said. ?I remember we didn?t practice that Tuesday. Tress canceled it right away, because of the magnitude of what had happened.?

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2011/09/09/buckeyes-recall-the-day-it-all-changed.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Football: Seau diagnosis worries former Buckeye
By Tim May
The Columbus Dispatch Friday January 11, 2013

Donnie Nickey, a captain on Ohio State?s national championship team in 2002 who played in the NFL for eight years, knows something sinister has been ticking in his head for a long time.He can relate to Junior Seau, the former linebacker who committed suicide by shooting himself in May.

?I?m a little worried about what the future holds,? Nickey said.

Nickey spoke yesterday after hearing that Seau, a 20-year NFL player who retired in 2009, had suffered from a brain disease brought on by repeated blows to the head. With permission of his family, the National Institutes of Health conducted a study of Seau?s brain as the profound effects of concussions on football players continues to come into focus.Nickey has been concerned about his brain for a while. He knows it has taken a licking since playing in high school at Jonathan Alder. He doesn?t even begin to have a clear count on how many concussions he might have suffered.?It depends on what you classify as being a concussion,? said Nickey, mostly a special-teams performer in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans who still lives in Nashville, Tenn. ?If you classify it as seeing stars, over a hundred. If it?s about being knocked out cold, twice. In training camp, I?d get a concussion every day if you count getting cobwebs. I can?t even give you a number for that.?

He started dealing with the effects years ago.

?I?ve gone to see a neurologist and a neurosurgeon,? Nickey said. ?I started getting what I thought were migraines about six years ago. It would put me down for a day. So the NFL hooked me up with a neurologist at Vanderbilt, and I got diagnosed with having cluster headaches and got put on some medication.?The abnormalities found in Seau?s brain ? called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE ? usually lead to dementia, depression and other mental conditions. But in his time as a pro with San Diego, Miami and New England, Seau was never diagnosed with a concussion.

Nickey said the competition for playing time is so fierce that some players try to ignore concussion symptoms, and that can begin long before the NFL.?It happened in high school,? Nickey said. ?Unless I walked to the other sideline, or unless someone visually could tell I was impaired, I was going to keep playing. At that point, it?s the macho part, and in the NFL it is the ?that?s your job? part. I mean, you sit out ? look at Colin Kaepernick.?

Kaepernick is a second-year quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers who became the starter at midseason after Alex Smith had to sit out one game because of a concussion.

?That?s just the way it is,? Nickey said.

Yet, something remarkable happened at the end of the regular season, Nickey said. New York Jets quarterback Greg McElroy, about to gain a start in place of Mark Sanchez, was experiencing concussion symptoms after being sacked 11 times in the previous game against San Diego. After keeping it to himself until late in the week, he finally relented and told team officials he couldn?t play.?Greg McElroy might be the first person in history to miss a game because he admitted he had a concussion,? Nickey said. Not admitting ?was part of your pride. ?Man, you?re fine. Rub some dirt on it.? Now they?re changing that kind of stigma.?

For Nickey, part of the price for playing is not being able to remember the games, including one of the biggest of his career when Ohio State defeated the University of Miami for the national title. It can leave him at a loss when the game has been brought up in conversation.?I couldn?t remember half the plays? people were talking about, Nickey said. ?I probably had three or four concussions that game.?

The fact that he didn?t tell anyone, ?I can?t hold anyone else responsible but myself,? Nickey said.

http://buckeyextra.dispatch.com/con...11/seau-diagnosis-worries-former-buckeye.html