Marc Buoniconti said his father, the late NFL Hall of Famer Nick Buoniconti, explained the secret to the success of their nonprofit and its fundraising efforts simply: “We’re just not good listeners.”
In the 40 years since Marc Buoniconti, then a college football linebacker at the Citadel, was paralyzed during a routine tackle, they have been told countless times that it was a problem that couldn’t be fixed. The Buonicontis didn’t listen.
Instead, through the fund that bears their name, they have helped raise more than $550 million for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and improved the lives of millions with spinal cord and brain injuries.
“The Buoniconti Fund has lasted because we’re relentless,” Marc Buoniconti recently told The Associated Press. “We never give up. When we see a challenge, we face it head-on and don’t stop until we find a solution. It’s that determination, that refusal to quit that’s kept us going all these years.”
That drive has also led The Miami Project to expand its work beyond curing paralysis. Its research center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine now also studies neurological diseases and disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and it is testing the brain-computer interface implant from Elon Musk’s technology company Neuralink.
