NASHVILLE – Former Titans linebacker Tim Shaw will be honored on Thursday night for his tireless efforts to bring awareness to ALS.
Shaw, who played from 2010-12 with the Titans, was diagnosed with ALS in 2014, not long after his six-year playing career ended.
Shaw will be honored during the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA)'s Volunteer Appreciation and Tribute Award event on Thursday at Studio A at the Grand Ole Opry House in association with Circle Network.
Shaw will receive an inaugural MDA Tribute award acknowledging his extraordinary efforts to support the patients and families affected by neuromuscular diseases.
In 2016, the Titans signed Shaw as a "Titan for Life," an idea of Titans General Manager Jon Robinson. Shaw has been a frequent visitor to Saint Thomas Sports Park, and in the past, he's also made road trips with the team.
Since his diagnosis, Shaw has helped raise money while bringing awareness to people who wake up every day battling ALS.
Broadcasting veteran Harold Crump and former Vanderbilt Care Center Director Dr. Peter Donofrio will also be honored with MDA Tribute Awards at Thursday's event.
The MDA Volunteer Tribute Event is the culmination of the Muscular Dystrophy Association's (MDA) week-long 2022 MDA Clinical & Scientific Conference taking place in Nashville.
More than 1,200 attendees both in-person and virtually gathered in Nashville this week for its Annual Conference. MDA leads the way as the only voluntary health organization in the neuromuscular disease space to combine the latest in research, clinical care, treatment and management, with the goal of transforming care through innovation and allowing people living with neuromuscular disease to live longer lives.
A fifth-round pick by the Carolina Panthers in 2007, Shaw played six NFL seasons in all, with the Panthers, Bears and the Titans, where he was a captain for two seasons. Shaw was released following training camp in 2013, when he first began noticing something different about his body.
Several months later, Shaw was diagnosed with the deadly disease ALS, often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease. According to the ALS Association, the progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to death. Patients in the latter stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
"Every day is a fight,'' Shaw said after the diagnosis. "Every day there is something that I have to wrestle with. What I would really hope is for people to look at their own lives and decide what they want to do differently… to make others better."
