At his darkest second, when the worst ideas flooded his soul, Mike Pereira puzzled whether or not it was time to surrender. Nothing alleviated his again ache — not yoga, not pilates, not any of the varied strategies of ache administration his medical doctors really useful. One thing we take with no consideration, stepping off the bed every morning, grew to become too excruciating to endure.
Pereira had spent 14 years as an NFL sideline decide and vp for league officiating earlier than transitioning right into a broadcasting pioneer — the primary guidelines analyst for NFL broadcasts when Fox Sports activities employed him in 2010. However final yr, at age 73 and in deep agony, his thoughts wandered to a darkish place. He stated he had suicidal ideas.
“I had by no means skilled something just like the ache I had,” Pereira stated. “I virtually gave up. I imply, I virtually gave up on life as I knew it. I grew to become such a burden to anyone round me and in a lot ache that I laid in my mattress saying, ‘Is it actually value this?’ I by no means considered myself as somebody who would ponder that. While you’re in that a lot ache and it slips into your thoughts one time, it retains going round your thoughts. It’s important to struggle it.”
Now, after lacking your complete 2023 NFL season, Pereira is again on tv for Fox, working a full schedule of school soccer and NFL video games. That’s the results of profitable spinal surgical procedure in November at a San Francisco hospital, an 8 1/2-hour process that concerned fusing seven ranges of Pereira’s spinal vertebrae. Pereira was hospital-bound for per week after the surgical procedure, adopted by one other in-patient week at a rehab facility in Sacramento, Calif.
He was instructed the surgical procedure was profitable, however it didn’t really feel that approach as he lay helpless in his hospital mattress in November. He couldn’t sleep, he might barely transfer, and his blood stress would crash anytime he tried to get off the bed. Lastly, he was capable of get right into a wheelchair, then he moved as much as navigating a walker.
“I felt a way of accomplishment over the best issues,” he stated. “While you’ve been that low and you then really feel the accomplishment of with the ability to obtain one thing that you simply couldn’t do earlier than, your angle adjustments.”
The therapeutic continued, and Pereira was robust sufficient to journey to the NFC Championship Sport in San Francisco in January. He shocked Fox’s high NFL crew throughout a manufacturing assembly at their resort and was overwhelmed by his colleagues leaping out of their chairs to greet him.
“The honest and real love that I felt at that second was overwhelming,” Pereira stated. “That second satisfied me I used to be coming again to work.”
I’m again and properly in Cleveland. I’m so grateful! pic.twitter.com/N7bggnmRo4
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) September 8, 2024
Pereira stated his high bosses at Fox Sports activities — CEO Eric Shanks and government producer Brad Zager — requested him previous to the season how a lot journey he wished to do, and he has opted for eight or 9 regular-season video games on the street (he switches off with fellow guidelines analyst Dean Blandino) and the remaining working from Fox’s Century Metropolis studios. (When Pereira and Blandino work from the studio, they watch video games from what Fox Sports activities workers name the “Sky Field,” which is the place the pregame present is finished.) His street journeys to this point have included Cleveland for Week 1 and Dallas final week. This week, Pereira will work from Los Angeles — one faculty sport Friday night time, 9 faculty video games Saturday and 4 NFL video games Sunday.
“I’m now virtually 10 1/2 months from the surgical procedure, and I can stroll 2 miles a day,” he stated. “I can do nearly every little thing that I might earlier than except for I can’t put sneakers on on my own. I’ve been after Howie Lengthy to present me some Skechers, however he’s not come by means of but (laughs). However I don’t care about any of the small points as a result of I’ve my life again. I imply, it was gone and now I’ve it again.”
We now take with no consideration guidelines analysts engaged on sports activities tv and streaming, however Pereira was a real game-changer when Fox created the position for him in 2010. Viewers had longed for broadcasters to supply correct explanations from the NFL’s Byzantine rule e book, and Pereira took the burden off the announcers. Joe Buck as soon as instructed me he thought of Pereira one of the best rent in Fox Sports activities historical past. Pereira stated he might have by no means seen his hiring in 2010 as a precursor for the numerous guidelines analysts we now see on tv throughout sports activities.
Mike Pereira earlier than the Week 1 sport between the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns. He missed the 2023 season as a consequence of his damage. (Nick Cammett / Diamond Photos through Getty Photos)
“It’s wonderment as a result of I by no means in my thoughts noticed this job coming,” Pereira stated. “I by no means thought when it was my time to retire from the NFL, I’d have one thing like this out there. I’m not solely pleased with the very fact of what it has meant to us as former soccer officers and the position of making an attempt to coach the followers, however I additionally take pleasure in the truth that I watch a soccer sport, there’s a guidelines analyst. Similar with the NBA. I now see networks with golf guidelines analysts. Fox began it, however a minimum of I used to be respectable sufficient at it that everyone felt it was a good suggestion. I take pleasure in that. I actually do.”
Speaking to Pereira today, it’s laborious to not come away with some perspective on mortality. He stated he appears like a brand new individual and has such little ache that he not has to take Tylenol or any form of ache reliever. There was even an sudden outcome from the surgical procedure: He measures 2 inches taller in top.
“There are issues I can’t do, however I’m residing my very best life at dwelling and at work,” Pereira stated. “Some folks may say that, however due to the appreciation of the place I’ve been, I actually imagine I’m residing my greatest life right this moment.”
When you or somebody you understand is having ideas of suicide, name or textual content 988 for the Suicide and Disaster Lifeline, or contact the Disaster Textual content Line by texting TALK to 741741.
(Prime picture of Mike Pereira on the sphere earlier than final week’s Baltimore Ravens-Dallas Cowboys sport: Sam Hodde / Getty Photos)
