Tony Dorsett turns to controversial stem cells thanks to old friend

The first time he tried to recruit Tony Dorsett, Jackie Sherrill barely could get in the same room with him.

It was the early 1970s. Dorsett, a high school running back in Pennsylvania, was being courted by a swarm of college teams. But Sherrill, an assistant coach at Pittsburgh, soon gained the trust of Dorsett’s mother and signed him up, launching two legendary football careers, along with a friendship that has lasted a lifetime.

“Tony is kind of like my son,” Sherrill told USA TODAY Sports.

They still visit regularly even now, more than 40 years later, with Sherrill looking out for him to the point that he recently recruited him all over again, this time for something far more urgent.

           After learning about Dorsett’s recent memory problems, Sherrill, 71, asked Dorsett, 61, to consider alternative medicine that might give both of them better lives after football. He invited him to try stem cell treatments that are not allowed in the USA — treatments they both received in Mexico last year and are planning to receive again this month.

The stem cells were extracted from their own stomach fat in Texas, before Celltex, a company in Houston, cultured and multiplied them with the help of a serum derived from cattle. The cells were then purified and injected back into them, about 200 million at a time, in Cancun.

Dorsett, who played 12 NFL seasons, said he didn’t want to leave any stone unturned in the fight to slow his deteriorating condition, for which there is no cure. He has been diagnosed with symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to football head trauma.

“When I was taking the stem cells, I was able to figure things out a little better and not get as frustrated,” Dorsett told USA ­TODAY Sports. Likewise, Sherrill says the treatment dramatically helped his ailing knees and shoulder.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the treatment they received is a biological drug because the cells were engineered beyond what nature intended for them. The FDA even intervened against Celltex in 2012, effectively shutting down the treatments in the USA unless the company could prove their safety and effectiveness through years of expensive clinical trials.