Tom Martinez, the QB coach guru who’s mentored Tom Brady during every offseason and who was a hugely successful California community college coach, announced on Facebook (via the San Jose Mercury News) that doctors have told him he has less than a month to live.
“My (medical test) numbers say I’m basically gone,” Martinez told the newspaper. “My blood pressure is too low for me to continue with dialysis, and without dialysis, poisons build up in my body. Doctors say without dialysis I have a week to go. We're looking into transplants. I would need both heart and kidney transplants done simultaneously.”
Martinez has suffered from the complications of diabetes for many years, but he still kept active – last week he actually was tutoring Brady. "Other than maybe (Brady’s) parents, people don't know what I do," Martinez said to ESPN.com’s Tim Graham last July. “But he knows."
Martinez had been working with Brady since 1992, when Brady’s father sought out Martinez’s advice for his 15-year-old son.
"What I feel good about is when guys trust me enough to do it, and it actually works," Martinez said. "There's a special relationship that's kind of unsaid between them and me.
"Guys don't say a lot to each other. It's just a masculine thing. On the other hand, you know what you did for them, and they know what you did for them. There's a respect."
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