Adam Morrison was discussed on today’s pod as an all-time hard-to-evaluate guy.

As a person with T1 Diabetes myself, I think he and Jay Cutler (and Jordan Morris and more) get dragged a ton and the issues of being a pro athlete (and a person) with diabetes aren’t discussed enough. I get it if they don’t want to be inspirations — I hide my disease from all but a few people because I don’t want special treatment or to discuss something that’s pretty traumatic to me.

It’s hard to come up with an analogy for what T1 is like. Imagine your car’s gas gauge doesn’t work, your gas tank has an unpredictable leak, and (bear with me) sometimes your gas tank fills itself up randomly. Sometimes you’re driving along and all of a sudden, empty tank. Sometimes you look in the back seat and are surprised to see ankle deep gas because the tank is too full.

When a T1 person’s gas tank is empty, it’s beyond the worst sports-induced bonk you ever had. It’s so bad you can pass out, be completely unresponsive, slur your words, and end up in the hospital and maybe even die. When our tank is too full, our arteries and nerves are being damaged and we can end up blind or needing an amputation decades downtown the road. You can get out and check the tank as often as you want, but you have to stop the car and get out to do it (this is the equivalent of the finger stick blood glucose test. Fortunately there are now (very expensive) constant monitors that let me monitor my blood sugar from my phone using a sensor stuck into my stomach).

Yes, living with T1 today is “better” than it ever has been but it’s still very challenging for average people — let alone pro athletes. I can’t even imagine it, even with access to amazing medical care.

Sometimes I have days without enough energy to get up and go to work in my office job. Other days I am able to go out and run ultramarathons. Yeah, it’s hard to evaluate how I’m going to feel. Managing T1 is a 100% full-time job with both immediate and lifelong consequences if I get it wrong.

Adam Morris and Jay Cutler should be seen as amazing stories, not the butt of jokes.