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Matt Light recently retired from the NFL this off-season after eleven years. It came up as a question for many NFL fans of why the New England Patriots offensive lineman left.

As he tells ESPN Boston, Light reveals that he has been battling with Chron's disease since 2004.

“It was one of the darkest periods in my life,” Light explained, referring to a series of surgeries that kept him in the hospital for 30 days.


“I basically got to the point, over the 3-4 years of being diagnosed with Crohn’s, that I couldn’t handle the pain anymore,” Light said regarding a decision to have 13 inches of his colon removed in 2004. “The pain became so difficult that in the offseason it just paralyzed me. I’d hit the ground. You can’t wake up. You can’t sit down. You can’t do anything without this becoming a problem.”

Complications caused him to drop from 315 pounds to 260.  “That happened in June, and I made it to training camp in the third week [of August], but not without having literally a near-death experience where I had another blockage post-surgery that I wasn’t aware of — all these complications.”

I think it's just flat-out amazing that someone is able to play in the league that long with a disease like that. The only other player I know who had this disease and still played is current Miami Dolphins quarterback, David Garrard.

 Light has the credentials that can land him in the Hall of Fame. Although having a disease isn't one of them, doing what Light did is just remarkable.

Josh Dhani is the founder of FootBasket. He also contributes at Hoops Authority and Eight Points Nine Seconds. You can read more about him at his website. Follow him on Twitter @joshdhani.

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