Kathie Lee Gifford and Son Cody on Frank’s Last Days with CTE: ‘He Was Dying Long Before He Died’ (Exclusive)

Kathie Lee Gifford, widow of NFL great Frank Gifford, and their son Cody are supporting the commercial release of the emotional documentary Requiem for a Running Backwhich explores the effects of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (commonly known as CTE), the brain disease that led to Frank’s death.

“The NFL gave my dad life,” Cody tells PEOPLE. “But at the same time, there were dangers.”

The legendary New York Giants star turned sports broadcaster was tough on the field and quick with play-by-play or on-air analysis of football, basketball and golf. But in the years before Frank’s death in 2015 at the age of 84, his family began to notice lapses in his memory.

On one of their last nights together, Cody says, “within a minute or two … he forgot everything I just said.”

Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

When Cody first saw Requiem for a Running Back, an independent documentary released in 2017 about fellow football star and CTE sufferer Lewis Carpenter, in which Frank appears, “I just took a deep breath,” he recalls. “I was struck by all the similarities in what these guys went through.”

Kathie Lee Gifford recalls the moment she met Frank Gifford: ‘It’s called the wink of God’

Cody approached Carpenter’s daughter, Rebecca, the director of the documentary. “I said, ‘How can we drive traffic to this?’ ”

Frank Gifford in 1963.

Walter Iooss Jr. /Sports Illustrated via Getty

Now Cody has financed the first commercial release of the film, available December 1 on Amazon, Google YouTube and Apple iTunes. He and Kathie Lee hope to reach a wider audience and educate more athletes and their families about CTE.

In August, doctors at Boston University’s CTE Center announced the alarming results of a recent study that examined the brains of 152 young athletes exposed to repetitive head impacts who were under the age of 30 when they died. Among the sample, just over 41% “had neuropathological evidence of CTE,” according to the study. In contrast, less than 1% of the general public has CTE.

According to the center, CTE is defined as “a progressive degenerative brain disease found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic blows to the head without concussions.” That brain degeneration “is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, problems with impulse control, aggression, depression and, eventually, progressive dementia.”

Kathie Lee says she’s never been the same since seeing Frank’s brain scan.

“It was heartbreaking to watch,” says Kathie Lee, who says Frank’s CTE was a grade 4 on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the most severe. “We found damage to the hippocampus, which is the center for short-term memory…it’s the cumulative aggregate hits you take throughout your life.”

Inside Kathia Lee and Frank Gifford’s 29-year love story

The NFL did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Although Cody has somewhat followed in his father’s footsteps — he went on to make the team at the University of Southern California but broke his ankle as a junior and left after a “bad career,” he says — he’s now more aware of the risks than ever before. .

“It’s an intoxicating thing if you grow up loving football your whole life,” he says. “I lived and breathed it. It’s hard to leave.”

Kathie Lee Gifford and son Cody Gifford.

Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Both mom and son say they are committed to sharing more widely what they know about CTE and the hope that there may be a prevention and a cure.

“No one would care more about injured people and children,” says Kathie Lee, “than Frank.”

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Source: HIS Education