BleedGopher
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per Megan:
He wasn’t even supposed to play football again after the knee operation, as a hit would be catastrophic with all the metal in his leg. But Chris O’Brien said her son has always had a “fear second, go first” attitude, so of course he found a way around that.
The lifelong quarterback up to that point switched to placekick holder, a position with much less risk for contact. Even bald and down to 130 pounds, he held for extra points between chemo treatments in high school. For college, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck was the only coach to call him with a walk-on opportunity, and the Gophers were the only program to medically clear O’Brien to play.
But O’Brien isn’t on the team just to be a mascot. He wants to start.
“I took chemo pills before every spring practice at my first spring ball at Minnesota. I did not miss a practice,” O’Brien said in his speech. “I spent all last season wearing a specially made shirt with a pad sewn into it to protect the port in my chest while I was still getting treatment [every Wednesday after practice]. I did not miss a practice.”
O’Brien has now been cancer-free for almost a year and a half, relying on scans every three months and a low sugar, high chicken-and-broccoli diet to maintain his health.
And while it’s of course scary to never know when or whether the cancer is coming back, he will always have the game he loves to carry him through the unknowns.
“I would have been lost,” O’Brien said, “without football.”
http://www.startribune.com/cancer-survivor-casey-o-brien-looking-to-play-gophers-football/512973472/
Go Gophers!!
He wasn’t even supposed to play football again after the knee operation, as a hit would be catastrophic with all the metal in his leg. But Chris O’Brien said her son has always had a “fear second, go first” attitude, so of course he found a way around that.
The lifelong quarterback up to that point switched to placekick holder, a position with much less risk for contact. Even bald and down to 130 pounds, he held for extra points between chemo treatments in high school. For college, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck was the only coach to call him with a walk-on opportunity, and the Gophers were the only program to medically clear O’Brien to play.
But O’Brien isn’t on the team just to be a mascot. He wants to start.
“I took chemo pills before every spring practice at my first spring ball at Minnesota. I did not miss a practice,” O’Brien said in his speech. “I spent all last season wearing a specially made shirt with a pad sewn into it to protect the port in my chest while I was still getting treatment [every Wednesday after practice]. I did not miss a practice.”
O’Brien has now been cancer-free for almost a year and a half, relying on scans every three months and a low sugar, high chicken-and-broccoli diet to maintain his health.
And while it’s of course scary to never know when or whether the cancer is coming back, he will always have the game he loves to carry him through the unknowns.
“I would have been lost,” O’Brien said, “without football.”
http://www.startribune.com/cancer-survivor-casey-o-brien-looking-to-play-gophers-football/512973472/
Go Gophers!!