Back to the San Francisco 49ers Newsfeed

Matt Millen, health failing, takes unflinching stock of his life and times

News of Matt Millen’s illness — he suffers from amyloidosis — broke last month. He was being treated with chemotherapy. He knew he needed a heart transplant.

In the past few weeks things have gotten worse.

“We’re in the fourth quarter of a big football game,” he told Peter King of Sports Illustrated, who visited Millen recently at his Durham, Pennsylvania, farm. “We’re down 13. Playing defense. It’s getting late. We need a stop. We need a big stop.”

Don’t confuse that with the corny scene in “The Pride of the Yankees,” in which Gary Cooper, as Lou Gehrig, asks his doctor, “Is it three strikes, Doc?