[dead]

He'll be eating apple sauce only in ten years or so.

[Zack Nguyen]

Aikman insisted until his retirement that the concussions had nothing to do with the severe drop-off in play quality during the 2000 season. He maintained that it was his back, which had been a problem his entire career, and apparently had progressed to the point where he was never free of the pain of it.

His accuracy was off severely in 2000. He didn't look like the same quarterback. By the end of the year he was suffering concussions from blows that he would have shaken off six years ago. No one played the game as tough as Aikman. He would sit in the pocket, and sit some more, make his throw and get blasted off his feet. Then he'd get up and do it again. In his prime he was absolutely fearless.