Who is Steve Gleason, winner of the ESPY’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award?

While most of the ESPY Awards honor athletes for their physical abilities, there are a few which recognize things which “transcend sports”, like contributions to society, acts of service, and courage. One of those awards is the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, named after former tennis player Arthur Ashe, which is given to those with great courage in the face of adversity.

The winner of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for 2024 was former New Orleans Saints safety Steve Gleason.

Who is Steve Gleason and what illness does he have?

Steve Gleason played for the Saints from 2000-2007 before becoming a free agent and retiring in 2008. As a player, he’s remembered for blocking a punt by Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Koenen in the first quarter of a game in 2006, with Curtis Deloatch recovering it in the end zone for a touchdown. It was the first game in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, and it had been nearly 21 months since the Saints had scored in New Orleans. They went on to win the game and then end the season with a 10-6 record and first place in the NFC.

But it’s what he’s done off the field since then that led him to this year’s ESPY award. Gleason was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2011 and was told he’d have only three years to live. In 2024, Gleason is unable to speak, walk, blink, or breathe on his own, but he is alive, motivated, and inspiring, and his contributions to ALS awareness have earned him several awards, including this one.

In 2015, Gleason was awarded the George Halas Award from the Pro Football Writers Association. He collaborated with filmmaker Sean Pamphilon to produce the documentary “Gleason”, which documents his experience living with ALS over a five-year period and was released in 2016. In 2019, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for his contributions to ALS awareness, the first time an NFL player has ever won that award. He also co-authored his best-selling memoir, “A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence”, which is about his life before and after his diagnosis. It was released in April of this year.

Gleason accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award on stage with his son, Rivers, and former Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who played with Gleason in his final season in 2006.

Brees was the official presenter of the award and he spoke about Gleason as a man who was always ready for adventure and looking for the next big thing.

“When I think about Steve as a teammate, and a friend, I think of a guy who has always taken the idea of living to the next level,” Brees said. “Steve has always been interested in having a deeper conversation, going on a bigger adventure, finding ways to experience the wonders of the world in every possible way. Always curious to explore both the seen, and the unseen of human emotion and connection.”

“That’s what made it so devastating when Steve was diagnosed with ALS, a disease with a terminal diagnosis that leaves you a prisoner in your own body,” Brees went on. “But if you know anything about Steve, you know he has always been determined to write his own story, and live to be 109. Through it all, he has never given in, never stopped fighting, No White Flags. And never stopped finding ways to inspire, impact and write his own story.”

Steve Gleason’s inspirational speech after receiving Arthur Ashe Courage Award

In his acceptance speech, Gleason made it clear how honored he was to receive the award, praising Arthur Ashe as a man who “exemplified courage”. In his inspirational speech, Gleason spoke about what it means to be courageous and how every one of us deals with adversity on some level.

“When I learned I was receiving this award, I started reflecting on what that word, ‘courage,’ means,” said Gleason. “To be courageous, we must first experience loneliness, unworthiness, or any of the faces of fear. I suppose if you have never experienced fear, isolation or suffering, you can roll your sanctified ass right out of here. The truth is, no human is immune from fear or adversity – not even super athletes, royal princes or the most holy saints.”

“Considering this truth of our humanity, it’s vital that we all, individually and collectively, discover ways to be courageous and love the life we have,” he continued. “My view is that the fears and the adversities that we encounter are our opportunity to accept what is and explore what is on the other side of fear, to grow stronger, better and have peace of mind.”