By Lisa Zimmerman, Player Engagement Insider
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, former safety Mark Kelso was known for being an integral part of the Buffalo Bills AFC Championship teams – and for wearing a helmet that people teased him about saying that it made him look like The Great Gazoo, the Martian character featured in the Flintstones television cartoon series. However, the decision to wear that helmet was far from a silly, flippant one – it was one of the most serious of his career.
After sustaining a couple of concussions in college and early in his NFL career, Kelso (who at that point was already wearing a neck collar), with the help of the Bills long-time trainer, Eddie Abramowski, began wearing what is known as a “Pro Cap” on his helmet.
“I wanted to be a viable part of this community when I was done playing football,” Kelso said. “I wasn’t going to continue to risk my head if I couldn’t protect myself in a more effective manner. I felt like I could play with the aggression I was accustomed to without risking additional injury.”
Through the remainder of his eight-year career, Kelso suffered only one more concussion, which occurred through a freak set of circumstances when he was accidentally struck in the side of the head by the knee of an opponent whom he was tackling.
It is a subject that has remained one of Kelso’s passions for almost three decades. He is also a strong proponent of the game of football and is focused on continuing to find ways to marry the positive aspects of the game with safety. He has maintained his ties with his former team, having served as the color analyst for the Buffalo Bills Radio Network for the past 10 seasons.
“Football is a really fun game that has the capabilities to teach kids functional principles that are very difficult to develop in any other way,” he said. “There’s so much cerebral work that has to go into producing any successful product on the field; in addition to the fact that you have to have heart and determination. Those components prepare you for a life of success if you continue to engage them in other parts of your life. We can play safely and successfully at the same time, we just have to teach kids the right way and find ways to reduce exposure to injury.”
Imparting knowledge has also been one of Kelso’s main roles in his life after the NFL. A graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, he coached briefly at Buffalo State College before received his teaching certification from Canisius College in Buffalo and becoming an elementary school teacher in the East Aurora, NY school system and then the Director of Development at a Buffalo-area Catholic school. When his own three children were young, he also coached youth football and baseball.
“I have an affection for giving youth opportunities,” he said. “I had some really good mentors growing up that are still close personal friends. Two of my closest friends were my high school coaches and I realized the value that can play in a young person’s life. Education is an area where you could have significant influence on a young mind and have a moment of exploration that would excite them and maybe launch them on a path toward something they might want to do when they grew up.”
But life takes different turns and when Kelso’s college roommate, still one of his best friends, Tad Geschickter and Geschickter’s wife Jodi became owners of NASCAR’s JTG Daugherty Racing Team they approached Kelso about joining them. Intrigued, Kelso accepted and is now the general manager of the team that runs the 47 car driven by AJ Allmendinger.
Kelso’s involvement is not mechanical, rather his role is to maintain connection and continuity among all departments of the team and to ascertain that everyone has what they need to do in order to do their jobs.
“[The Geschickters] needed somebody they trust implicitly who would work in their best interest,” Kelso said. “They know I’m going to do that. And, there are so many parallels to an NFL locker room. The entire configuration of the shop, the way the guys interact with each other to build the car. The only real difference is you do have an entire team around you but you have one guy driving one car, you don’t have 10 other people on the track but they are in the pit box. So there are many similarities to running a football team.”
Kelso references former Bills general manager Bill Polian’s philosophy as being the one he applies to the racing team. “Teams don’t win championships, organizations do. Everyone plays an integral role in the success. If one person thinks they’re greater than the team, it’s going to have a negative impact.”
As in football, safety is front and center in racing, so Kelso continues to keep his eye on every development occurring in that area in both sports. And when it comes to the issue of safety and concussions, Kelso is optimistic about what the future holds.
“The concussion issue and its resolution is a big puzzle,” Kelso said. “There’s a whole bunch of pieces. People don’t really know what causes a concussion. There are really five components; some configuration of those five components happens and results in a concussion. But one component is good head protection. When you create all those components in the most favorable capacity you can make the game safe and successful. There have been some really good initiatives to head down that path.”
Lisa Zimmerman is a long-time NFL writer and reporter. She was the Jets correspondent for CBSSports.com, SportsNet New York’s TheJetsBlog.com and Sirius NFL Radio. She has also written for NFL.com.