Ben Utecht Is Losing His Memory, So He Wrote This Beautiful Love Song To His Wife And Kids
From the archive: published Jul 6, 2014, 12 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Ben Utecht is a 33-year-old former NFL player who, like too many former football players, is already experiencing symptoms of memory loss due to the repeated brain concussions he endured during his playing career.
He suffered the fifth concussion of his five-year career in 2009, and knew then it was time to cut his playing days short. He had a second passion anyway: music. Since leaving the NFL, he has put together a respectable music career.
But in his latest, extremely affecting song — and the video that goes with it — Ben Utecht, a native of Rochester, Minnesota, uses his music to send a message to his wife and three daughters. The song is called “You Will Always Be My Girls,” and it imagines a day, which sadly for Utecht could be all-too-soon, when he will no longer have the ability to remember who they are.
“The transition out of the NFL is difficult for a lot of guys because their whole life is wrapped up in this sport and it’s all they know and it’s all they have,” Utecht told CBS This Morning last week. “And music has always been a release for me, an ability to present myself in a different way. I’ve been working on music since retiring. But there was something missing.”
He said the suggestion to write the song came from his producer, who called him with the idea just before Utecht, who is a spokesperson for the American Brain Foundation and American Academy of Neurology, boarded a flight. He penned the lyrics on board, at first in the form of a letter to his wife and three daughters, and as he was midway through creating the letter, he broke down in tears.
“These are real fears,” Utecht said. “At 33, I’m not facing some of the symptoms – or the level of symptoms – that some of the players are in their early 50s. But the fears of that happening are real. And that’s what the letter was about.”
When you watch the video, you’ll probably break down in tears too, especially when you realize that the woman in the video is Utecht’s actual wife, Karyn, playing herself — and she is not an actress and in the video, she is not acting.
“Those were the real emotions. That was not an actor on camera portraying something. That was her thinking about those fears. That is what made this so real and sincere because that was true. It’s made it really special.”
Spend a few minutes with the Ben Utecht video, “You Will Always Be My Girls,” above.
