Tech great Greg Gathers in dire need of kidney transplant

Greg Gathers was once a breathtaking sack machine, but he is human. He sometimes asks why he is in the position he is in, once again suffering severe kidney failure. Gathers, a two-time first-team All-ACC defensive end for Georgia Tech in 2000-01, does have an answer.

“I just believe things happen in people’s lives for a reason,” he said. “You just try to have faith in God. You just try to find ways that you can exemplify him and just bring attention to him.”

Gathers, 34, undergoes 4 ½-hour dialysis treatments three times a week. Married with four children, he is a middle-school teacher and a high-school football coach in Gonzales, La., about 20 miles south of Baton Rouge and about 30 miles northwest of his hometown of Laplace.