Steve Gleason

Stephen Michael Gleason was born on March 19, 1977, in Spokane, Washington. He played safety for the New Orleans Saints in the NFL after a college career at Washington State. The Indianapolis Colts signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2000, but he was cut after the preseason. He joined the Saints’ practice squad that November and played for New Orleans through the 2006 season. After eight seasons, he retired as a free agent in 2008.

Gleason is best known for blocking a punt early in a 2006 game—the Saints’ first home game after Hurricane Katrina. That play became a symbol of the city’s recovery. In 2011, he announced he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig’s disease. His life with the disease was filmed over five years and featured in the 2016 documentary Gleason. He received a Congressional Gold Medal in 2019 and the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2024 for his ALS advocacy.

Growing up in Spokane, Gleason attended Gonzaga Prep, where he won consecutive defensive MVP awards as a linebacker in the Greater Spokane League and also played fullback. At Washington State, he started at linebacker for the 1997 team that lost the Rose Bowl. He was a four-year starter in center field for the Cougars baseball team and holds the school record for triples.

Professionally, the Colts signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2000 but released him after preseason. He joined the Saints’ practice squad in November. The Birmingham Thunderbolts selected him with the 191st pick of the 2001 XFL draft. On September 25, 2006, he blocked a punt by Atlanta Falcons punter Michael Koenen in the first quarter at the Superdome. Curtis Deloatch recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. It was the first score in the Saints’ first home game in nearly 21 months, after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The Saints won and went on to their most successful season at that time, reaching the NFC Championship.

Gleason and his wife, Michel Rae Varisco, have a son, Rivers, and a daughter, Gray. Six weeks after his ALS diagnosis, they learned they were expecting their first child. He lost his voice to ALS and had it cloned by CereProc, a Scottish speech synthesis company. He originally worked with filmmaker Sean Pamphilon on a documentary that would also serve as a video journal for his son. The film was produced by Kimi Culp, Scott Fujita, Seth Gordon, Mary Rohlich, and Kevin Lake, and premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. He was also featured in an episode of A Football Life in November 2013. In April 2024, Knopf published his memoir A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence.

In September 2011, the Saints gave Gleason a Super Bowl ring, and New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu awarded him the key to the city. In July 2012, a statue called Rebirth, depicting his blocked punt, was raised outside the Superdome. He received the 2015 George Halas Award from the Pro Football Writers Association, presented during a Thursday Night Football game between the Saints and Falcons on October 15, 2015. Near the end of the first quarter, Saints linebacker Michael Mauti blocked a Falcons punt and returned it for a touchdown.

Mauti, a New Orleans native and son of former Saint Rich Mauti, had attended the 2006 game. The Saints won 31–21. After the block, Gleason tweeted: “Hey, Falcons. #NeverPunt -SG.” In 2019, he became the first NFL player to receive a Congressional Gold Medal, presented in Washington, D.C., on January 15, 2020. In 2024, he received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.