- Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino revealed he has been dealing with a liver disease for nearly a decade.
- Marino was diagnosed with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH, after feeling fatigued.
- The former quarterback has made lifestyle changes, including more exercise and dietary adjustments.
Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino has revealed he’s been dealing with a liver disease for nearly two decades, but that by making adjustments to his lifestyle he believes his prognosis is ‘gonna get better and better and better.’
In an interview with People magazine, the former Miami Dolphins quarterback said he first began feeling ‘a little fatigued’ in 2007, and found out after a routine checkup that he had metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.
The condition, formerly called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, is caused by an excess of fat cells accumulating in the liver, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
‘The doctors right away said that can be reversible, it can be taken care of, but, mainly for me, they were saying, like, ‘You gotta work out. You got to lose weight,” Marino told People.
Marino, 64, says he now exercises more regularly than he did after his playing days ended. And he’s made major adjustments to his diet after doctors told him to ‘cut back on the wine and pizza and candy, ice cream, those kind of things.’
When Marino retired in 2000 after 17 seasons with the Dolphins, he was the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards (61,361), completions (4,967) and touchdown passes (420). He was the league MVP in 1984, a nine-time Pro Bowler and the first quarterback to throw for over 5,000 yards in a season.
Marino was a first-ballot inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.