Brodie Hospitalized After Suffering Stroke

John Brodie, a former NFL most valuable player with the San Francisco 49ers who later played on the Senior PGA Tour, was hospitalized in Rancho Mirage this week after suffering a major stroke.

Brodie, 64, was taken Tuesday to Eisenhower Medical Center, where hospital spokeswoman Mary Kay Plock said Wednesday the former quarterback was “stable and improving.”

“It was pretty touch and go,” Kelly Stefanki, the oldest of Brodie’s five children, told the Associated Press. “We’ve got 48 hours to kind of see what’s happening.

“He’s very alert, he definitely knows what’s going on right now. We’re talking to him.”

Stefanki said Brodie’s five children all traveled from out of town to be with him, as did Atlanta Falcon quarterback Chris Chandler, Brodie’s son-in-law.

Falcon Coach Dan Reeves, informing reporters in Atlanta of his quarterback’s absence, said Chandler told him in a telephone message that Brodie underwent four hours of surgery after it was discovered he had two arteries that were blocked--one totally, the other 99%.

Chandler also said that Brodie had no feeling in his right side, and the next 24 hours “were critical.”

Brodie played a franchise-record 17 seasons with the 49ers, from 1957 to 1973, passing for 31,548 yards, second to Joe Montana on the 49ers’ all-time list. He was the NFL MVP in 1970, and led the 49ers to the NFC championship game in 1970 and ’71.

As a pro golfer, he won the Security Pacific Senior Classic in 1991.