On a day when the entire NFL-viewing world was glued to their computer and television screens to watch with giddy anticipation as Patriots owner Roger Goodell put the smackdown on Roger Goodell, a seemingly small but, in all reality, truly monumental and undeniably feel-good bit of news came - Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry, who has been battling Hodgkin lymphoma, was cleared to return to the field at the outset of Chiefs training camp, the team announced Wednesday.
Chiefs GM John Dorsey said in March that the former first-round pick, intially diagnosed in December of 2014, was fighting for all he was worth and, more importantly, seemed to be winning the battle.
"Well, anybody who knows Eric Berry knows that if there's a challenge presented to him, he will attack it with a vengeance," Dorsey said, while appearing on Sirius XM NFL Radio at the time. "And he will do that. Everything that I have gotten back has been very positive. I have not spoken with him on the phone for probably six weeks, but I have texts. We communicated through texts. He's in good spirits, he's fine, he's driving, and he's going to conquer it."
Well, conquer it he did - though, as Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Devon Still's daughter Leah's own battle has shown us, cancer is rarely defeated outright and can often come back, if not necessarily stronger, at the very least, different.
Still, this is major cause for happiness and smiles in Kansas City and across the league. Not only will Berry, one of the league's best overall safeties at the time of his diagnosis, help shore up a suspect Chiefs secondary, he's also provided a positive story at a time when many other players in the league can't seem to stay out of trouble, in one way or another.
Check out a pic of Berry on the field for the first time in nearly eight months...
No. 29 is Eric Berry on his first day back at Chiefs practice https://t.co/l84jd8D2q5 pic.twitter.com/I5mMFWSIIr
— Adam Teicher (@adamteicher) July 29, 2015
