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End Zone

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Later, in his Overland Park office, Dobler says he's probably due for a couple of new hips. To manage the pain, Dobler pops hydrocodone and Valium.

He rips into a couple of fan letters seeking autographs. He gets 10 to 15 every week. Dobler signs a handful of cards and stuffs them into the self-addressed stamped envelopes. "You owned Merlin Olsen," one letter says, as if the writer thinks that stroking Dobler's ego will help his chances of getting an autograph. But Dobler's ego is still strong, even if his body isn't.

Back in January, Dobler appeared on HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel to talk about the retired players' disability fight. Near the end of the 17-minute segment, Dobler hinted at committing suicide.

"I don't really know," Dobler responded to Jon Frankel's question about his future. "I don't think it's really good. But you just take it, I guess. Find some way to handle it. If you can't handle it, make the choice to check out."

"You're serious?" Frankel asks.

"Yeah, if you have something that's not going to get better and you know that your quality of life is going to get worse and you're going to be a burden to people around you, you know, they shoot horses don't they?"

Eight months later, Dobler doesn't back away from that stance.

"To survive and keep after it as long as I have is an attribute that I probably achieved from football, by never giving up," Dobler says. "But it is depressing. But that's the cards you're dealt. That's the cards you gotta play, and the only way to get out of the game is to get out of the game."

But not yet, he says.

"I'm still fighting the wolves."

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