ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Former Detroit Lions general manager Matt Millen is stepping away from his Big Ten Network broadcasting duties for the rest of the season to concentrate on his treatment for amyloidosis.
Millen had been working for the network as a color analyst for the first five games of this season. He had also done preseason radio work with the Oakland Raiders.
“We will certainly miss seeing Matt this fall, but his health is the clear priority for everyone involved,” Big Ten Network senior vice president Mark Hulsey said in a statement Wednesday. “And we plan to support him in any way possible.”
The 60-year-old first opened up about his diagnosis — which leaves him in possible need of a heart transplant — earlier this year to The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Amyloidosis is when amyloid builds up in bone marrow, eventually ending up in organs and body tissue. As it progresses, it can force organ failure by affecting healthy tissue.
In April, the Morning Call reported Millen’s heart was working at 30 percent capacity. Millen, who is a former ESPN employee, told the Morning Call he first began having symptoms seven years ago.
“I know what you have,” Millen said doctors told him, according to the newspaper. “And you’re not going to like it.”
A second-round pick out of Penn State in 1980, Millen played linebacker for 12 years for Oakland, San Francisco and Washington — becoming a two-time All-Pro, one-time Pro Bowler and four-time Super Bowl champion.
In 2001, he was hired by the Lions from the broadcast booth to become the team’s president and general manager. He was fired during the 2008 season, a year when the Lions finished 0-16.
The Mayo Clinic statistics report that 70 percent of people diagnosed with the disease are men, usually between the ages of 60 and 70.