Thanks for listening to Sports Palooza Radio! We're back with another great show.

How does someone who was diagnosed to never walk, play professional basketball for 17 years? Former NBA player Olden Polynice is just one of our guests today. He was born with a disability that caused his feet to turn inwards and was diagnosed to never walk. Instead, he beat the odds and was able to live up to his name’s moniker (victory) and play in the NBA for 15 years, 17 internationally. Polynice  serves as the ambassador for 31, an annual awareness campaign which takes place each October during National Disability Employement Assistance Month to educate about disability employment issues and celebrate the many contributions Americans with disabilities have made to the workforce.

This weekend is the New York City marathon and Alan Brown is the Team Reeve participant who is a quadriplegic, training for the NYC marathon with a hand cycle and hopes to raise $260,000 for research. He'll tell us his story! What another inspiration! 

And, finally, to help keep players safe and prevent the kinds of injuries he sees in his practice, New York’s Dr. Patrick Kerr spent more than a decade developing a protective device that is put into standard issued shoulder pads and turns them into a system that engages the helmet as a football player braces for impact. He has invented The KERR Collar, which reduces head and neck movement 38% during a collision and absorbs 58% of the collision impact, redistributing the force of the hit away from the head and neck area to reduce injury risk. 

It's going to be a great show!