Back in 1994, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue created the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee and appointed rheumatologist Dr. Elliot Pellman as the leader of the committee. It was a time when the league consistently refused to acknowledge the link between football and long-term brain damage. 

It was a period where multiple players suffered chronic head issues. And one of them was former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Merril Hoge. In a recent conversation with TMZ, Hoge revealed how a concussion gave him a near-death experience. 

“I’m playing for the Chicago Bears, and I have a major concussion on a Monday night,” Hoge recalled during the interview with TMZ Sports. “They clear me to play. This is 1994. But this is even archaic. The family practitioner, because I didn’t have an expert, a neurosurgeon, on staff, he cleared me five days later to return to play by asking me one question over the phone. ‘How do you feel?’ 

“He never saw me. He never did an evaluation on me. And I only bring that up because this is now, listen, I give the Bears credit. Them and the Philadelphia Eagles were the first two teams in NFL history to mandate cognitive testing. So, the point with that is, you make mistakes, you fix them, and you make sure they don’t happen again, because it ended my career, but it jeopardized my life. 

“I went into cardiac arrest. I was in intensive care for days. I had to learn how to read again. I started my life over at age 30. It wrecked my life.” 

The incident ended Hoge’s eight-year-long career in the NFL. It was his first year with the Chicago Bears after he spent seven seasons with the Steelers. Unfortunately, he had to hang up his cleats after logging in only five games in his final season. 

Through the eight seasons, Hoge rushed for 3,139 yards and scored 21 touchdowns. He also recorded 254 receptions for 2,133 yards and scored 13 receiving touchdowns. But a major concussion stopped him from adding more yards to his records. 

But that near-death experience wasn’t the end of Hoge’s medical troubles. 

Merril Hoge Had to Face Another Major Medical Condition After Retiring From the NFL

Nine years after playing his last game in the NFL, Hoge was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. His heart sank when the doctors offered him no guaranteed solution for the cancer. But when his daughter spoke the three magical words – “find a way” – Hoge decided to undergo chemotherapy with the same mindset that he carried to the gridiron. 

Thankfully, the treatment worked, and he was declared free of the disease in just about six months. But his struggles continued, and he had to go under the knife for open-heart surgery. All of that put an important perspective in his mind. 

“Football was only the beginning,” Hoge shared in an X post in September 2026. “When my NFL career ended after head trauma and the improper care that followed, I had no idea how many more challenges were ahead. Then came cancer. Chemotherapy. Open-heart surgery. Each time, I had a choice: let adversity define me or find a way through it.

“Those three words, Find A Way, became more than something I said to my kids. They became the title of my first book and the mindset that carried me through every new hurdle. I found my way back to the field, coaching Team Power in 2018. I continued sharing the game through ESPN and broadcasting, and eventually turned my experiences into my second book, Brainwashed, taking a deeper look at the science behind CTE. From NFL player to ESPN analyst, cancer survivor to author, coach and speaker, my path has never been a straight line. But every challenge taught me the same lesson: there is always a way forward.” 

Hoge’s harrowing recollection exposes the terrifying reality of the NFL’s archaic 1990s concussion protocols. Yet after surviving cardiac arrest, relearning to read at 30, and beating cancer, the former Steelers star continues to prove there is always a way forward.