At his darkest moment, when the worst thoughts flooded his soul, Mike Pereira wondered whether it was time to give up. Nothing alleviated his back pain — not yoga, not pilates, not any of the various methods of pain management his doctors recommended. Something we take for granted, stepping out of bed each morning, became too excruciating to endure.
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Pereira had spent 14 years as an NFL sideline judge and vice president for league officiating before transitioning into a broadcasting pioneer — the first rules analyst for NFL broadcasts when Fox Sports hired him in 2010. But last year, at age 73 and in deep agony, his mind wandered to
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