We all remember what former Steelers’ safety great Ryan Clark brought to the table on the back end of the great defenses that reigned in the mid-2000s, forming a dynamic tandem with Hall Of Famer Troy Polamalu. While Polamalu was given the freedoms to freelance and rack up splash play after splash play, en route to the 2010 AP Defensive Player of the Year, Clark was the enforcer, and one only needs to ask former Ravens’ running back Willis McGahee for verification.
However, Clark suffers from the sickle-cell trait, a genetic disease that’s often symptom-free which affects red-blood cell counts and of which he was diagnosed during a game in Denver in 2007.