When Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma last year, it was an immediate and sobering reminder that football - and sports in general - while an important part of many American's lives and an oftentimes necessary distraction that helps us through our myriad daily mundanities, is not the end-all, be-all of our existence as human beings.
Berry, 26, is now in the midst of a battle off the field of far greater importance than any last-gasp Super Bowl victory, snatched heroically from the jaws of defeat in the game's waning moments, could ever hope to muster.
Thankfully, things seem to be going well for the former first-round pick.
"Well, anybody who knows Eric Berry knows that if there's a challenge presented to him, he will attack it with a vengeance," Chiefs GM John Dorsey told Sirius XM NFL Radio on Tuesday, per NFL.com. "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."
Dorsey also told host Alex Marvez that Berry has begun driving again, though there is, of course, still no timetable for his return to the field.
Doctors at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta diagnosed Berry with Hodgkin Lymphoma in December after thorough testing and a complete medical work-up, according to the Kansas City Chiefs website.
"This is a diagnosis that is very treatable and potentially curable with standard chemotherapy approaches. The goal of Mr. Berry's treatment is to cure his lymphoma and we are beginning that treatment now," Christopher R. Flowers, director of Emory Lymphoma Program at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute, said in a statement following the diagnosis.
Berry also released a statement at the time thanking Dr. Flowers, the Emory University School of Medicine and fans of the Chiefs and stating that he would "embrace this process and attack it the same way I do everything else in life. God has more than prepared me for it. For everyone sharing similar struggles, I'm praying for you and keep fighting!"
