Heavyweight Champions

Ask most Pittsburghers about the city's contributions to professional wrestling, and you'll likely hear the name Kurt Angle, the former Olympian who doubled down on his fame by becoming a professional-wrestling superstar. Older fans will recall the greatness of Bruno Sammartino, who once squared off against the likes of Ivan Koloff and Cowboy Billy Watts.

Very few Pittsburghers will mention Jerry McDevitt. And yet it may be McDevitt, an attorney with the law firm of K&L Gates, whose legacy will be the most lasting.

McDevitt has represented World Wrestling Entertainment since the late 1980s. Over the years, he has helped its performers, and impresario Vince McMahon himself, out of various legal scrapes. And McDevitt helped establish a medical-testing program to protect the wrestlers' health -- a program that was a key issue in the failed Connecticut Senate bid of McMahon's wife, Linda.

After Eddie Guerrero's death in 2006, with McDevitt's recommendation, WWE turned to another Pittsburgher: Joseph Maroon, UPMC's director of neurosurgery to set up what they now refer to as their Wellness Program.

When McDevitt first introduced Maroon to Linda McMahon, the neurosurgeon admits he "did wonder, quite frankly, what this was all about. Because I had no background in it whatsoever."

But Maroon, who has also served on the NFL's head-injury committee and is the Pittsburgh Steelers' team neurosurgeon, soon saw an opportunity.

"I spent my entire career trying to fix the cars after they were already broken," he says. But working with WWE was a "chance to institute preventative measures. ... And I truly believe that this is the best preventative medical program I have ever seen in sports."...More?

source: pittsburghcitypaper