The terrifying reality behind former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Ryan Clark’s 2007 health crisis runs way deeper than most fans realize. Opening up on The Daniel Cormier Show, Clark revealed the full weight of the disconnect. He explained how the Steelers organization pushed him to suit up and play despite the physical breakdown that left him unable to stand.
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Towards the end of the podcast with the former two-division champion of the UFC, Daniel Cormier, Ryan Clark revealed just how important a role his wife, Yonka, has played in his life. Especially in his battle with the sickle cell trait. He even went on to claim that he is alive today because of her. While explaining her involvement and sacrifices she made, he referred to how she would have to nurse him through midnight chills before driving him to the practice facility.
“Every night my fever would rise to over 103, every night for like a month. And we’d change my pajamas, I’d shower, we’d change the sheets, and I’d go back to sleep. And the Steelers were telling me I should be able to play. So she’d drive me to work. And every day like clockwork I’d have to call her at like noon and be like, ‘Babe, I can’t even stand up. Can you come pick me up?’” Ryan Clark revealed on The Daniel Cormier show on YouTube.
During a Week 7 matchup against the Denver Broncos at Mile High in 2007, Ryan Clark initially pushed through sharp side pains that he brushed off as routine game-day cramps. But the moment the game ended, it all became too real too fast as the high altitude triggered a sudden, violent reaction; Clark collapsed directly onto the floor of the team plane, forcing staff to pull him off the aircraft and rush him to a local Colorado hospital overnight.
Once he returned to Pittsburgh, the team’s medical personnel actually questioned why their starting safety was missing practice. They were completely unaware of how grave the situation was.
Ryan Clark carries the sickle cell trait, which usually causes no trouble at sea level. But Denver’s mile-high elevation starved his blood of oxygen, triggering sickle cells to block blood flow and destroy his spleen.
Throughout that month, Ryan Clark and his wife kept the medical struggle private from almost everyone outside immediate family. Emergency surgeries soon followed as the doctors were forced to remove both Clark’s damaged spleen and gallbladder. However, according to his own admission, his wife never once left his side and even fought for his life when he himself had given up.
“She advocated for me, DC. She stood by me. She fought for me when I was sort of just not complacent, but trying to be compliant and listen to what people were telling me,” Ryan Clark told Daniel Cormier. “And so without her, man, like literally I would not be alive. And so I know, you know, it’s the cliché thing to say about someone who’s cared for you that you owe them your life. But in this sense, man, I truly do.”
The severe stress his body was put through made him lose roughly 30 pounds and also kept him on the sidelines for the rest of 2007. Still, Clark rebuilt his strength that following offseason, returned to the starting lineup for the Steelers, and helped Pittsburgh win Super Bowl XLIII.