Sickle Cell Sidelines a Pittsburgh Steeler
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By DERON SNYDER
Ryan Clark thought that Saturday might be different. Even though he sat out the Pittsburgh Steelers’ last two games at Denver — after suffering a severe medical condition when he played there in 2007 — Clark thought he might have a shot this week because it’s a playoff game.
But Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has decided otherwise. He doesn’t want to risk another incident like the last one, when Clark became violently ill and had his spleen and gall bladder removed as a result of sickling after playing in Denver’s high elevation.
“Everybody knows I want to play and I would have played,” Clark told ESPN. “I talked to my doctors and we actually had a plan in place for me to play. All things pointed to me going until (Tomlin) told me I can’t. He said he wouldn’t have let his son play, and so I’m not playing either.”
