The brothers Kemoeatu: Ma'ake, a former Baltimore Raven and Chris, a former Pittsburgh Steeler, could not have been tougher competitors on the field, of course, against the other players in the league, but even more so against one another. The storied franchises they played for were bitter rivals and allowed them plenty of opportunities to butt heads in a professional setting.
But according to a Huffpost Sports report, when Chris, the younger of the two Kemoatu's, was forced to retire from pro football because he required a kidney transplant, his older brother Ma'ake, upon discovering that his own kidney was a match, retired so that he could donate the much-needed organ to his brother.
"He couldn't play anymore, and I didn't want to be in a position where he couldn't play but I'd keep playing," Ma'ake said. "As soon as my brother's health was at risk I wanted to stop everything.
"I'm the oldest of the seven kids, and it's my responsibility to take care of my younger brothers and sisters. If my younger siblings need blood, it'll be my blood. If they need a kidney, it'll have to be my kidney."
Preparations for the procedure began a year and a half ago, but were complicated when Chris was informed by his doctors that he first needed a coronary bypass.
"I knew in my mind that he's fighting a kidney and now he has to have heart surgery," Ma'ake said. "I said to him, it's going to be OK. I talked to him in football aspects. I said, 'all right, we're not going to get this in the first down, but we're fourth and long right now and we have to go deep. We'll make it through the first down - the heart surgery - to the end zone: the kidney transplant."
The massive size of the pair of ex-players, a boon to them on the field, added an extra layer (or layers, pun intended) to the procedure facing the University of Maryland medical staff.
"When I first met Chris, I said, '385 pounds is a new record,'" Dr. Stephen Bartlett, the UMD Medical Center transplant surgeon, said. "Man, when that thing came out I felt like somebody threw me a small football."
The surgery was deemed a success, with the brothers "on their way to recovery".
