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Interview
with Jimmy Button
By Eddie
Graveline
MOTOPRESS
1-4-00
Q: I haven’t talked to you since the
Vegas Supercross last year, Jimmy. Tell me how things are going, where you are
in your recovery and what the prognosis is.
A: The recovery is going good. Every day is a
battle in a way. Things are coming around and getting better. It’s been almost
a year now (since injuring his neck at the San Diego SX last year). I’m just
working hard and trying to make progress every day.
Q: Putting it in tangible terms, what
types of things are you now able to do that you weren’t able to do before?
A: (pauses) I can’t race a motorcycle yet. I
can’t run a marathon yet, but that’s it. I ride a bicycle now. I can do
pretty much everything on my own now. My fast twitch nerves really haven’t
started firing too well yet. That slows me down so I can’t run or do anything
like that. Other than that, I’m doing pretty well.
Q: As far as those fast twitch nerves
are concerned, do your doctors expect those to continue to come back to you?
A: Yeah, for sure. Everything is still having
progress. It’s hard to see it every day, but over a month or so, you can see
progress. It’s still going in a good direction. It’s definitely a lot slower
than it was seven or eight months ago.
Q: Is getting back on the bike and
racing professionally still the ultimate goal?
A: That’s always the goal. Whether or not it
happens is for God to determine, not for me. I just work as hard as I can and
see where that takes me. Hopefully that will take me to my ultimate goal, and
that’s to race again. If it doesn’t, I had a pretty good career; I’ve
gotten to do a lot of good things and had a pretty good time. I’ll always have
some good memories to look back on. I’ll keep working hard and hopefully it
will happen. Maybe it will take a little longer than I had originally hoped for.
Everything is still going in a good direction.
Q: You’ve obviously come to grips with
the possibility that it may not work out for you to ride again. Have you made
any plans or explored any business opportunities with that in mind?
A: Yeah, definitely. I’m going to help out
Jeremy’s (McGrath) team a little bit this year. I’ve also had some
conversations with Bell Helmets and I might be doing some rider support for
them. They don’t have too many riders right now except for Jeremy and the
Yamaha of Troy team. I’ll be able to go to the races every weekend and kind of
keep in it (the motorcycle industry). I’m looking for some different
opportunities to come about and I’m definitely interested in everything. I’d
love to stay in the sport. I’ve been in the sport for 23 years now and it’s
what I know pretty well. I’m keeping my options open and looking for
opportunities that come about.
Q: Have you tried getting back on a bike
and just putting around for fun yet?
A: No. The deep core muscles in my neck are
still pretty weak from the injury. For me to get on a bike right now would just
be a little bit too risky. I ride mountain bikes and stuff like that, but I
don’t need to get on a motocross bike yet. I’m sure if I got on one I could
ride it around. I rode a little Z50 or something like that at Jeremy’s house a
few months ago, but as far as riding a big bike around, I haven’t tried that
yet. I need to do everything in the right order and not take any chances. I’ve
been to the abyss and come back, so I definitely don’t want to go there again.
I’m just going to be smart about it and let it come to me as it does.
Hopefully everything falls into place and I can have my career back. If it
doesn’t, I’m pretty sure I can live with that.
Q: Can you describe some of the highs
and lows that you’ve had in this last year?
A: The high points are easy. The first time
you can walk on your own, go to the bathroom on your own, the first time you can
eat on your own and all the other things you used to be able to do. Those first
times are really good milestones. The low points are thinking about taking your
own life and thinking ‘I’m useless, I can’t do anything’. I was never a
person that could understand someone doing something like that, but after going
through what I’ve gone through, I can understand where those thoughts come
from. And they do. They run through your mind. When you go from being a
professional athlete at the top of your sport to laying in a bed and the only
thing that’s working is your mouth, the thoughts of uselessness and everything
else come flooding in pretty quickly. You have those feelings, but fortunately
for me, I’m a strong enough person that I would never take that road. You
know, I had a really good support group behind me of friends and family and just
normal people. I was fortunate in that I was in a hospital where there were a
lot of people in my situation and I got to see where that can lead you when you
don’t have a good support group.
Q: This has to have given you amazing
perspective on what your priorities are and what’s really important in life.
A: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I was thinking when I was driving in
today to the stadium, that the last time I was here was Anaheim last year. I
think I got 5th or 6th place in the race and made a bunch
of mistakes. I should have been on the podium. I was pissed at the world and so
mad and upset. I was pissed off over a motorcycle race. Right now, I’d give
anything in the world to be back in that position, making those mistakes and
coming in 5th or 6th place. That just proves that this
isn’t everything in life that’s important. There’s family and having kids
and stuff like that. When I got hurt, those thoughts came to me very quickly. I
would love to have kids. Before, I was like, ‘kids are too much of a
responsibility. I want to race my motorcycle, not deal with that’. Stuff like
that just happens. You start thinking about family and everything else. I
remember thinking how great it would be to walk down to the mailbox and get the
mail. When you can’t do anything, you start doing stuff like that. Now I’m
fortunate. I’m able to do all of those things that I had wished for. The only
thing I can’t do yet is race my motorcycle. If that’s the only thing that I
don’t get back, that I can’t race a motorcycle again professionally, then so
be it. It might take some time, but I know I’ll be able to ride a motorcycle
again. It’s something I love to do, that I’ve been doing my whole life.
I’ll always ride motorcycles. If I can’t race, that will be another bridge
that I have to cross when I come to it.
Q: Have guys like David Bailey and Danny
Chandler—that have suffered similar injuries and not recovered as well as you
already have—been an inspiration to you in terms of their attitudes and how
they’ve handled their disabilities?
A: Definitely. I haven’t talked to Magoo
(Chandler) at all, but I’ve talked to David quite a few times and we send
e-mails back and forth. David is an amazing individual. You know, a lot of
people think he was an amazing motorcycle racer, but this year he won the
Ironman. The dedication that he has to himself, his family and his new sport is
incredible. With the odds that he’s been up against, he’s risen above
everything in every aspect of his life. To me, he is a man. He is the true
essence of what a man is. I definitely look at him for inspiration. I’ve
gotten back more than he did. I just hope to use his (philosophy) and try to
succeed at everything I do from now on.
Q: I know that David’s son has started
to race motocross. He obviously doesn’t have any regrets regarding his career
or hold any grudges toward the sport. Do you feel the same way? Would you
support your children if they wanted to ride?
A: For sure. I mean, when I got hurt, you
could do it in here right now, you know, trip on a chair. My accident wasn’t
because I was jumping something or going too fast. I was going just a few miles
an hour, made a little mistake and it ended up being very costly. I don’t hold
any grudges against the sport. It’s what I love. If I held a grudge, I
wouldn’t be here today. I don’t need to be here on a Thursday. These are my
friends and this is a sport that has been good to me. I want to stay around it.
You know if I have sons and they want to ride a motorcycle, most definitely. If
they want to play tennis, if they want to be a doctor, I’ll support them in
any way they want. If I had a kid and they wanted a motorcycle, I’d be the
first one to go out and pick one up for them.
Q: There has to be a number of people
and influences that have helped you through all of this.
A: Definitely my family, you know, my parents.
My trainer Cory was with me the whole time, my girlfriend, Christy. You know,
all my friends, my teammates. Everybody was just so great. All of the fans.
Everyone stuck behind me. I was at a pretty rare time in my life and they really
helped me get through it. I had a lot of support from Steve Hudson, the
chaplain. Without having that kind of support, it would have been very difficult
to have succeeded. My hat’s off to those guys for sure.
Q: Did you get to hang out with Jeremy
more this summer since he was off, or was he as busy as ever?
A: Yeah. My therapy that I go to is off the
same exit as him in Encinitas. We hung out quite a bit and got to just chill and
do the things that we used to do all the time, but didn’t get to do at the
races anymore. We talked to each other all the time and got to see each other a
lot. We’re the best of friends and we’re just at a different stage in our
lives right now. It was good. I’ll be happy when he retires and we can hang
out some more.
Q: Hindsight is always 20/20. Have you,
as a result of your situation, discovered anything that the riders, promoters or
industry as a whole can be doing to help prepare for or prevent this type of
thing from happening in the future?
A: Preventing it, I think, is impossible.
It’s going to happen. I wish it wouldn’t. I pray every night that no one
would ever get paralyzed again. It is a horrible situation. One of the things
that they’re going to do this year is have Dr. Bodner at all of the races.
He’s the doctor that got me off of the track. Thanks to him, I’m not still
in that bed. Had they moved me one way or another in the wrong way or taken my
helmet off in the wrong way, I would have been pretty screwed. They’re doing a
great thing with having him at all of the races. If there’s a rider down in a
serious situation, they’re going to be able to take care of him the way that
they need to. Another thing that I think needs to happen is that there needs to
be a riders fund like there is in the NFL. Something where if you get hurt,
you’re taken care of for a while. I’m personally involved with a foundation
called “Road to Recovery”. It just started this year and it’s going to be
raising money for injured riders. It’s a non-profit organization. If a rider
has a career ending injury, it may not pay for all of the bills every single
month, but it’s going to give them something. I don’t know, maybe $1000 or
$1500 or $500 a month. It’s going to be something that they will be able to
receive all of the time. I’m working hard on that. We’ve got Steve Hudson
involved in that, Bobby Moore and quite a few people. I think those are a couple
of things that would be great. As far as preventing it goes, you’d have to
make the tracks perfectly flat and that’s not going to happen. You’re going
to have injuries in any sport. No matter how good the athletes are, everyone
makes mistakes. It’s an unfortunate situation, but unfortunately, it’s the
reality of it.
Q: Lastly, I have to get your
predictions for all of the classes in this year’s Supercross series.
A: As far as the 250 class goes, I’ve got to
go with my man (McGrath). There’s going to be some other people that win some
races. To beat him in a championship, especially Supercross, is difficult.
Everybody else has to worry about being healthy all year and the outdoor series.
He’s only got one goal; to win the Supercross championship. David (Vuillemin)
is going to be fast. Ricky (Carmichael) is going to be fast. Kevin (Windham) and
(Travis) Pastrana will be up there if he stays on a 250. I would predict that he
would. As far as the 125 class goes, I’ll be very, very surprised is Ernesto
(Fonseca) doesn’t win the championship. In the east, I don’t know if I can
make a prediction on that. If Travis (Pastrana) is going to go there, it’s
going to be pretty tough between him and Nathan (Ramsey) and Nick (Wey). I’m
picking all of the Yamaha guys, but I’ve seen them ride and that four stroke
(YZ250F) is pretty amazing. It’s going to be a tough bike to beat in the 125
class.
Q: It’s just awesome to see you now
after just a year. We will keep in touch and I look forward to seeing you at the
races this year.
A: Thank you.
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