With Fourth Teammate Stricken, Giants Worry About Environment

New York Giants’ players expressed concern about the environment in which they work after learning that tackle Karl Nelson was the fourth Giant stricken with cancer since the club moved to Giants Stadium.

The players were informed Saturday night that Nelson has Hodgkin’s Disease. Team physician Dr. Russell Warren said Nelson’s chances of recovery are good--”90% to 95%.”

Linebacker Harry Carson, a 12-year veteran, said: “It makes you wonder what the hell is going on. I’m tired of going through this. I don’t know how much more I can take of guys getting ill.”

And center Bart Oates said: “It raises grave concerns about the game and the environment in which we play and practice.”

Former Giant running back Doug Kotar died in 1983 from a cancerous brain tumor, and running back John Tuggle died last year from lung cancer. Linebacker Dan Lloyd’s National Football League career was ended in 1980 by lymph node cancer although he survived and later played in the United States Football League.

Giants Stadium is built on a landfill in an area with one of the highest cancer rates in the country. In his 1979 book about the Love Canal disaster in Upstate New York, Michael Brown prominently mentioned Giants Stadium, which opened in 1976, as being in a high-risk area.

“Yeah, I’m afraid,” Carson said. “Every time I feel something strange in my body, it makes me wonder.

“A couple of years ago I talked about getting out of here, and everyone thought it was because of the losing. But that was not the only thing. That (the illnesses) was also a reason.

“I was here in the first year of the stadium. I see garbage dumps all around here. I don’t think anybody has done any studies to prove if these things are healthy or unhealthy in this area.”

Robert Mulcahy, executive director of the New Jersey Exposition and Sports Authority, said that any hint the cancer cases might have something to do with the environment around the stadium is “outrageous speculation.”

A mass was found behind Nelson’s sternum Tuesday after routine pre-operative X-rays for arthroscopic surgery. Nelson had complained of loss of strength in his left shoulder.

Warren said Nelson, 27, who is married and the father of a baby girl, will probably undergo chemotherapy radiation treatment to reduce the tumor.